The Twists of Fate
by Alatar Maia
Summary: Gabriel died in the Elysian hotel that night. But where did he go after that? Well, if you pay attention here's where you'll learn that particular story. It began with a power-hungry Asgardian, and it ended...well, that would be telling, wouldn't it? All there is to say is, it'll be a hell of a ride.
1. A Ritual and a Madman

**Hello. I bring a new story.**

**Okay, so I really like Gabriel and that's basically the only point of reference you're going to get as to this story's origin. I wrote it on a whim and it's taken a couple days to finish this chapter, but I hope you enjoy. I don't know how long I want this to be, so it might not go beyond a single chapter. I've been writing a lot of supernatural recently. I feel like I should get into some other stuff, show my support for different fandoms.  
**

***cough* Anyway, Gabriel meets the Avengers, enjoy. T for strong language/swearing.  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Marvel**

* * *

Gabriel coughed as he landed hard, sucking in air and hands automatically going to his chest to stifle the wound from the angel blade and-

There was no blood.

_Impossible, _he thought disbelievingly. He'd just-Lucifer had _stabbed _him and then-

A cold feeling washed over him as he realized he must have died.

But then where was this? Angel afterlife? If so, it was severely lacking in-

A cough from behind him interrupted his thoughts. Gabriel whirled around.

He was in a stone room, yellow with artificial light, and lying in the middle of a runic circle that looked like something only the Winchesters could have found. The man who'd coughed was standing just outside it.

Oh boy, was Gabriel in for it. The man was obviously a Pagan. He was dressed in some sort of medieval armor, green and gold and black, and his hair was shoulder length with a slight curl.

"Greetings," he said with a grin so fake - or maybe it was just sinister - Gabriel wasn't fooled for a second. "I am Loki of Asgard-"

Wait, what? "_I'm_ Loki," said Gabriel, standing up. Not only was this guy a pagan, but he was a crazy pagan too. "I don't know who the hell you are, but you're definitely not me."

The man's grin disappeared. "That was indeed the point of the spell," he said irritatedly. "I am afraid that you are no longer in your home universe."

What?

"So you see," the man - other Loki - continued, "We are, technically, both Loki."

"Uh huh," said Gabriel. "Well, pardon me for not jumping up an down in joy. What am I doing here?"

"You are here to help me." said Other Loki simply.

"And..." somehow that single sentence seemed very ominous. "What am I helping you to do?"

Loki smiled, sharp and definitely not friendly. "I am burdened with glorious purpose. You are here to help me achieve it. Who better than my own self to call on for aid?"

O-kay, this guy was definitely quite a few feet away from the path of sanity.

As Other Loki went on to explain his plan, Gabriel's disbelief increased exponentially. This guy was worse than Michael! Were all his alternate selves like this?

Hopefully not. He'd hate to have to run into more of them.

"What are you doing?" Other Loki demanded, and Gabriel realized he'd let his attention wander.

"Sorry," he said in his fakest and most charming voice. "You just really aren't the best orator. I've seen more compelling. That Martin Luther King guy, whoo! He could really put energy in a crowd."

Other Loki gripped his staff thing tight, his knuckled whitening. "You will cease this rudeness at once," he ordered and whoa, how had Gabriel not notice the power coming from that little blue circle before? "I have more power than you will ever hope to gain."

"Good luck with that," murmured Gabriel, examining his surroundings more closely and realizing belatedly that there was some sort of barrier starting at the edge of the runic circle that formed a nearly invisible dome over him, effectively preventing him from leaving.

"Perhaps some time alone will change your thoughts," snarled Other Loki, who then turned on his heel and strode away imposingly - or it might have been imposing if Gabriel had been a complete and utter wimp of an angel.

"Great," he said to himself. "How am I going to get out of this one?"

* * *

His chance came sooner than he'd expected.

The circle was ripped from its present location [and Gabriel with it] and pulled through a dizzying mess of a transportation spell to a city street in some country. He had been magicked up right behind Other Loki, who was facing some sort of costumed man with a very patriotic shield.

Gabriel rolled his eyes. _Good Dad. I can't wait to meet the people **he **works_ _for_.

Said patriotic man had paused at the circle [and Gabriel's] appearance, taking a defensive stance.

"The hell...?" he muttered, before ducking to avoid a blast that Other Loki sent straight towards him.

A sleek, black jet ducked down from the sky, hovering [and when had humans accomplished that feat?] maybe ten feet above the ground.

"Give up, Loki," echoed from a speaker on the jet. Other Loki only continued his attack, striking the costumed man and throwing him across the plaza. There were people running everywhere, screaming and shouting in German [so that's where they were] and quickly emptying the square and the surrounding streets. The only distraction was when the speaker on the jet started blaring 'Shoot to Thrill'.

A thing...robot...whatever it was it was red and gold with some sort of glowing blue thing in its chest. Anyway it flew down and struck a couple of good hits against Other Loki, causing him to tumble to the ground.

"Make your move, Reindeer Games," said the humanoid, weapons popping up from his armor and Gabriel sent an annoyed prayer up to his Dad because really? Of all the people he had to run into, he _had _to find the one who was another Dean Winchester.

Other Loki glared, then made a quick dive into the circle protecting Gabriel. He seized him at the neck and put the pointy end of the scepter at his chest.

"Let's see how you like dealing with two of me," he said, and then the point sank slightly _into _Gabriel's chest and the staff hummed, the point glowing with a faint blue energy that swirled along the tip and something very gross washed through him.

Gabriel shook, writhing in Other Loki's grip because _ew, _it was like being forcibly filled with demons and whatever that power source was, it must have been bastardized beyond all hope to do _this._ The force twisting through him and Gabriel hacked and choked and eventually managed to get it out, spitting smoke and blue sparks onto the pavement.

Another blast from the robot caught the two of them. It didn't do any harm to Gabriel that didn't immediately heal, but Other Loki was back on the pavement and holding up his hands in surrender, his armor melting away in a gold light array.

_What? No way he'd just give up like that._

Someone grabbed hold of Gabriel as well, but he was burned out from forcing that...thing...out of him, and decided to go with it. They both ended up on the place, him shoved onto the floor opposite Other Loki, who was glaring at him mutinously.

He raised his eyebrows in response and then closed his eyes and leaned against the seat next to him. He could hear the people who had shown up to fight talking, and wondered what the hell they were talking about. Mostly Other Loki, and the costumed man and the robot [who turned out to be another guy in a mechanized suit] snarking at each other.

Only ten minutes in, his nap was interrupted as the jet was shaken and thunder rumbled outside. Gabriel opened his eyes to see Other Loki looking panicked.

"Scared of a little thunder?" said Robot sarcastically.

"I'm not overly fond of what follows," Loki said, eyes darting around. And he turned out to be justified in that, because someone in a red cloak and armor not unlike his [perhaps more suited to battle than stealth] wrenched open the bay door of the jet and surged in, knocking back Robot and seizing Loki only to jump back out with him and fly away.

Gabriel wasn't entirely sure what had happened between that cloaked man and the two that had followed him [Robot and Costume] since he'd been left in the jet, but they came back apparently working together. He put it down to the mental workings of humans, which he'd never understood.

* * *

Admittedly, the flying aircraft carrier came as a surprise.

Loki was dragged off somewhere while Gabriel was shoved unceremoniously into a small holding cell. Gabriel sulked for several minutes over the fact that apparently he wasn't dangerous enough to warrant a bigger cell. He decided not to remove the handcuffs, as that probably wouldn't help convince these guys that he was on their side. Moving them so that his hands were in front of him probably wouldn't matter.

No one had come to try and interrogate him right away, most likely thinking that Loki was the bigger threat. He looked around his tiny metal cell, noticing the horribly concealed camera in one corner. He leaned up to it, moving the bed to stand on so that he could tap on the lens.

"Hello? Are you just going to strand me here? I feel like I should be a higher quality prisoner!"

The camera didn't reply, but it did shift slightly to the left. Gabriel moved so that his face was still in front of it.

"Hey, don't ignore me! I'd like a chance to get out of this cell, thanks."

The camera moved back to the other side. So did Gabriel.

"You know I'm not on that guy's side, right? He did kind of try to control me. That doesn't help. I wasn't working for him before then either, though."

* * *

"He's been talking to the camera ever since he was locked in there," Hill notified the group as the view into Loki's cell minimized to be replaced with the one into Gabriel's. "He keeps asking to be let out and saying he's not working with Loki."

"Loki did try to use the staff on him," Steve said. "I'm not sure what the point of that was, but he seemed surprised when nothing happened."

"I wouldn't say nothing happened," said Natasha dryly.

"Whoa, whoa, back up," said Fury. "He used the staff on him and it didn't work? What happened?"

"Loki attempted to do the same thing to this man as he'd done to Selvig and Barton," Natasha told him, everyone subtly shifting to look at her. "Selvig and Barton were two of ours who were put under Loki's control," she explained for the rest of them.

"So, why didn't it work on him?" Bruce voiced what they were all thinking.

Natasha turned to Steve and Tony. "Captain, Stark. You two were closest to them when it happened. Describe it."

"Well," Tony said before Steve could say anything. "He sort of shoved the point into him and then Point Break started twitching like he was having a seizure. Loki was kind of holding him up and then Loki dropped him and he started coughing up smoke - sort of bluish, and some sparks too."

Fury's eyebrows were raising higher with every word that Tony spoke. "So we've got an unknown entity who's obviously not human, but also definitely not on Loki's side."

"Should we ask him to help?" Steve asked, looking around.

"We might need all the help we can get," Fury muttered. "Thor, any idea of who or what he might be?"

"I do not know," replied Thor. "Even an Asgardian could fall under the thrall of the Tesseract. To have thrown it off...I do not know what manner of creature he must be."

"Of course." Fury snapped his fingers. "We'll talk to him. Hill-set up a screen in the guy's cell. We'll talk to him through the computer-I don't want anyone going in there. For all we know he could be out of those handcuffs in seconds."

* * *

The video feed that popped up showed Gabriel sitting directly in front of the screen with a confused face, which was quickly replaced with a blank one as soon as he realized that they could see him.

"I guess you guys did hear me, huh?"

"Who are you?" Eyepatch got straight to the point, glaring at the screen. "We know you're not working with Loki, but then how did you resist the Tesseract's influence?"

"Well, thanks for asking politely." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Who I am is a bit of a tricky question."

"Is that so?" Dad, he could _hear _the suspicion. "Then explain it. We've got time."

"Alright. I'm Loki from an alternate universe."

Someone offscreen spit their drink out.

"You're not serious?" It was the blond guy who reminded Gabriel of Thor from his universe.

"Oh, totally. This Loki had the mojo and I guess he thought I'd help him out."

"And why didn't you?" Eyepatch was having trust issues.

"I dunno, maybe because the guy's obviously insane?" Gabriel sent a look through to them. "Give me some credit. Also, world domination is generally a role which gains you some enemies. I didn't come here by choice."

"My brother summoned you?" Blondie-definitely Thor-asked again. Gabriel sent him an appraising look.

"You'd be Thor, then?" He received a nod of affirmation and snorted. "Well, you're a hell of a lot nicer than the Thor from my universe. He'd be smashing stuff and demanding answers by now."

Thor looked embarrassed by that.

"So let me get this straight-" Goatee leaned forward. "Your alternate self summoned you here to help him, you refused, and so he tried to mind-control you?"

Gabriel frowned. "Who the hell are you?"

Costume [who was sitting next to him] had to stifle a laugh; Goatee looked offended, as if Gabriel had insulted his parents.

"I'm Tony Stark," he said. "Iron Man."

"Oh, you're the robot guy. I thought that was just a machine or whatever the hell you call it."

Costume was having an even harder time keeping his laughter silent, and others around the table were having similar problems. Tony sat back with a huff and almost looked like he was sulking.

"So..." Gabriel looked around at the people on the other side of the screen. "What was the point of all this? Are you trying to get me to join your side? The whole 'enemy of my enemy is my friend' thing."

"Can we trust you?" asked Redhead.

"I'd like to think so. Unless one of you turns out to be secretly working against this whole organization."

"That'll have to do."

* * *

Someone was sent down to let Gabriel go, and he was escorted into a white room filled with all sorts of delicate equipment and glass screens. Tony and another man he internally dubbed 'Glasses' were already there, running tests on-oh.

"Something wrong?" Tony turned around to find Gabriel staring with utter loathing at the golden staff. "Oh."

"Would anyone mind if I destroyed that?"

"We're kind of using it to track the Tesseract," said Glasses, coming around the screen he was working on and holding out a hand. "I'm Bruce."

Gabriel didn't accept the hand, staring at the man with dread. "The _Tesseract_?"

"You know what it is?"

"Enough to know that it shouldn't be _anywhere_ near _any _of your hands." Gabriel whirled around. "How the hell did Loki get it?"

"He broke into a SHIELD base and stole it." Tony supplied.

"SHIELD?"

"It's the name of this whole spy ring," Tony said, gesturing around them.

"Well, how did they get it then? Humans don't just find this stuff!"

"I don't know." Tony and Bruce exchanged glances.

"Great." Gabriel stood, hands on his hips, and glared around at nothing in particular. "Terrific, really. Just how I needed this day to go."

"I guess being in the wrong universe doesn't help." Bruce said quietly, moving behind a table to reach some sort of contraption.

"It could be worse." _It could be a lot worse,_ thought Gabriel as he mentally reviewed the events that had led up to his arrival here.

_You disloyal..._

_Oh I'm loyal. To people, Lucifer._

_Brother, don't make me do this._

_No one makes us do anything._

_Amateur hocus-pocus. Remember, you learned all your tricks from me, brother..._

"Hey!" Gabriel startled out of his thoughts by fingers snapping in front of his face.

He jerked back, slapping the hand out of the way. "Whoa, personal space."

"You just went totally out of it," Tony observed, watching him closely. "What was that about?"

"None of your business." Gabriel turned sharply and shook his head to dislodge those thoughts. He wasn't dead now, so there was no use moping over it.

Absentmindedly, he found himself in front of the spear and trying to muffle the energy signal it was giving off. If Loki had the Tesseract, it would be way too easy to find the location of the spear. He couldn't stop the energy from leaving [or else the spear might implode] but he could make it fainter and harder to find.

Bruce and Tony were having their own sort of conversation, until Costume walked in. Whatever they were talking about, Gabriel stayed out of it.

Humans were so odd. This group dedicated themselves to stopping Loki, but how pure were their intentions? Gabriel didn't think he'd be able to trust any of them in a tight situation. They were so full of emotion, too easily swayed - Eyepatch perhaps the least, but all the same, he was still human.

He needed to get out and be on his own, but if Gabriel left now he knew that they'd stop at nothing to track him down. They were just that suspicious. Gabriel doubted they'd be able to find him, but being on the run was so frustrating when it wasn't necessary.

_Humans._

There seemed to be a lot of yelling. Gabriel turned around.

All six of the people he'd talked to earlier and Eyepatch were yelling at each other, the words indistinguishable and the spear practically glowing. Gabriel narrowed his eyes, seeing the tendrils of energy which were leaking into the air and messing with the humans.

He flew over, landed right next to the spear, grabbed it and threw it across the room, hopefully leaving a dent.

Everyone ducked, the argument silenced by shock.

"What was that for?" rumbled Thor, looking at Gabriel in surprise.

"I'd expect it of humans, but can't Asgardians tell when something's messing with their emotions?" Gabriel pointed to where he'd thrown the spear. "That thing is bad mojo."

"Messing with our emotions?" Costume glanced towards the fallen spear, probably realizing along with everyone else that as soon as it had hit the wall the anger had drained out of the room. "Oh." He glanced towards Tony, looking apologetic. Tony was looking at the spear thoughtfully.

"Emotions, huh? I wonder what else it does."

"Stark," said Eyepatch sharply. "You are _not_ experimenting with alien weapons."

Gabriel couldn't help but feel like that staff would cause nothing but trouble.

* * *

The breath whooshed out of his lungs as Gabriel landed hard on a metal floor, one end twisted and burned from the explosion that had gone off.

_I knew it,_ he thought miserably, getting back up without care for air. The first thing he did was try to locate the other seven people that had been in the room with him.

Costume and Tony were making their way outside, probably to see if the fan could be salvaged. Eyepatch was storming onto the bridge and shouting orders. Thor was running towards the room that contained Loki's cell. Redhead and Bruce were lying maybe ten feet away through a hole in the floor - hold on, what was wrong with Bruce?

_So that was why Loki kept making jabs about a monster._

The green thing that Gabriel doubted was Bruce anymore roared; Gabriel pulled Natasha out of the way and flew the both of them to a safe distance. She gasped, being flown away and the sudden loss of pressure on her leg combined shocking her into silence.

She asked something once she recovered, but Gabriel ignored her, frowning as he sensed two larger energy signatures interacting somewhere deep in the Helicarrier. It was Thor and Loki, undoubtedly, but he was unsure what they were doing. Taking pains to carefully conceal himself, Gabriel flew in and immediately tried not to groan out loud. Loki had somehow both escaped and tricked Thor into taking his place inside the cage.

Gabriel watched as Thor failed to break the walls of the cage, glass though they were. Loki froze, then grinned, laughing at his brother's dilemma.

"The humans think us immortal," said Loki, turning to the panel that controlled the cage and opening the chute under it. "Shall we test that?"

Drop Thor out of the Helicarrier? Asgardian or not, there was no way he'd survive. Gabriel watched as the plain-looking agent intervened, nearly managing to sneak up on Loki.

"We made these after you sent the Destroyer to Puente Antiguo," he said, hefting the huge gun in his arms. "Even I don't know what it does."

Gabriel sensed Loki's movement moment before it happened. The agent gasped as the point of the spear entered his body, and Loki dropped him carelessly to slump against the wall as he walked back to the control panel. Thor had screamed a denial, and was watching his brother with helpless eyes. The entire scene hit far to close to home for Gabriel.

Loki pressed the button.

The cage dropped, and Thor with it, and Gabriel peered with detached interest over the edge to see the glass cage quickly dwindle into a nearly invisible speck and then vanish altogether as it got too far away.

"You're going to lose." How did the agent's voice stay so steady, when his breathing was no doubt growing erratic and his heart slowing? Loki seemed surprised as well, but he did not express it.

"And why is that?" Loki sneered.

"You lack conviction."

"I lack _nothi-_" the agent fired the gun in the middle of Loki's sentence. It exploded with a bang and launched a large, fiery bullet at Loki, which took him across the room and through a wall, where he struggled to raise himself up again.

"So that's what it does," said the agent weakly, his arms loosing the force necessary to hold up the gun. Gabriel watched invisibly as Eyepatch came in far too late, but in time to hear the agent's last words.

Eyepatch bowed his head as the medical team came in.

_"Agent Coulson is down."_


	2. A Fight and a Surprise

**Welcome to chapter number two! A bit of backstory first, and the beginning might be a bit awkward. It was originally part of the last chapter, but I thought that last line would be a good place to cut it off. Also, I hope you appreciate my Tesseract backstory! I had to make it up on the spot as I was writing.**

**Also, there will be a poll set up soon! Leave a review or PM me about it, but the topic is this: Do you guys want me to write more of this story? Because I'm honestly not sure if I will or not. My muse has been on break recently, and her replacement isn't interested in this one.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers or Supernatural.**

* * *

How had Stark figured out where Loki was going to be?

There was no time to try and figure it out. Gabriel flew straight to Manhattan, glad that this world seemed to be more or less exactly like his old one. Landing in the middle of a street nearly got him taken out by a cab. Flipping off the driver, Gabriel readjusted his aim and flew up, landing on the roof of the huge tower bearing the name STARK. Ne could tell that something was already up there, a writhing mass of _wrong _inside a machine on the top of the building. If he was right about the Tesseract's origins, it was no wonder it felt so foul to Gabriel.

* * *

The Tesseract had a long and sordid history, least of all HYDRA's involvement with it. Before that, it had been hidden in an abbey. Before that, the Dalai Lama had kept it secret inside his monastery. Before that, someone else had kept it. And before that, it had not yet fallen from Asgard.

The cube had indeed been the jewel of the treasure room, mainly because Odin had refused to keep it as an artifact of war. Even he understood that its power was too immense for one individual to hold. But the Tesseract's story still did not begin there.

It really began many millennia ago, when Gabriel was still one of only four angels and the Earth itself had not yet been created, much less this universe or any of its nine realms.

God, as he was still around back then, decided that his world needed something new. He created a new kind of energy, one no one has ever had a name for, and he dispersed it throughout his new world as a power source, one that could lead to new galaxies and planets, for He loved to watch His creations develop on their own.

However, He had made a mistake nearly as big as when He created the Leviathan.

The energy He created had been spread everywhere, but it was drawn to itself like one magnet to another. It transported itself light years away to join with more energy, tearing holes in space and clumping and generally getting in the way instead of helping anyone.

This, on its own, might not have ended up quite so badly.

But when the energy was spread by God, some of it made its way into Heaven. And God, seeing His mistake, gathered all the energy together again and joined it with the remainder in Heaven, and presented it to His eldest son Michael as a mighty weapon of God.

Lucifer, when the time came about, furious at the creation of humanity and his father's order to love them more than Him, plotted to use this weapon against his brothers and sisters. The weapon had no set form, and was constantly shifting, but its color was always a pure blue so bright it might have been mistaken for white by one who did not know better.

When Lucifer stole it and wielded it against fellow angels, the energy was aware. It burned darker, affected by the one wielding it, and in his fury some of Lucifer's stained-red Grace leaked into it and mixed so that the center had a perpetual purple wisp at the center.

It was Gabriel who, as Lucifer fell, seized it from his hand. It had been further corrupted by his fallen brother than anyone had dared to concern themselves with, and he secreted himself away and compressed the weapon, molding it into a small and solid shape and binding the energy so that it would not be used for such destruction again. When he was done, he took the now-tiny cube and with the last of his energy threw it so hard from Heaven that it became lost between universes.

Very far away and much, much, much later, Odin saw a falling star in the sky above Asgard.

* * *

Gabriel wrinkled his nose as he took in the machine that whirred on top of Stark tower. Stark and Loki were fighting down below, and someone had knocked out the man who was in charge of running the machine.

Hopefully, he'd forgotten to make some delicate change to keep it running and it would explode.

Gabriel knew that idea was hopeless, but where the Tesseract was concerned he couldn't help but hope. There was no way he was letting this fall back into the hands of SHIELD, but how to get it out of the machine? He couldn't get past the energy barrier.

A crash from below distracted him. Gabriel peered over the edge of the roof - Loki had thrown Stark out the window. A moment later, another red-and-gold suit sped towards the falling man. Gabriel looked back to the machine.

What was it supposed to do? The Tesseract had been a weapon of many purposes and uses, and even in this limited form there were many options. The most likely one was that Loki planned to open a portal, but for who? Why bother taking over Midgard, with all the disdain he felt for humans?

The answer, in hindsight, was fairly simple.

Someone else was behind this.

If this was truly Loki, Gabriel's counterpart, then his plan was ridiculously sloppy. Now that Gabriel thought about it, he had seemed strange earlier, and his words had a strange tone, as if Loki were an actor and trying to give a flair to his speech.

Really, who spent that much time monologuing? It was impractical. Gives the hero too much time to stop you.

The machine sputtered in front of him, crackling with [_wrongwrongwrong_] energy which resolved itself into a beam of bright blue [and Gabriel winced, because he remembered where he'd last seen something like that] which shot into the sky, bubbling and expanding into a circle of dark black dotted with stars.

So it was a portal.

Shit.

* * *

The Chitauri were _messed up. _Gabriel didn't want to know what backwater, reptilian swamp corner of the universe Loki found them in, because he wanted to avoid it for all eternity.

Thor had shown up a little while after Tony had gotten thrown off the tower. The other three Avengers had shown up in a jet after him, tried to face Loki, and had to make an emergency landing with only one engine.

Gabriel had taken in upon himself to personally get rid of all the Leviathan worms [not actual Leviathans, which would have been even worse] and was jumping from one to another as soon as they were dead. The Hulk had gotten to a couple before he could, but Gabriel just grinned and gave him a thumbs up. He didn't think the Hulk appreciated it.

"Holy shit," said Tony as he flew by once and saw Gabriel stabbing one through its armor. "What is that blade made out of?"

"Humans don't have a name for it," said Gabriel as he flew to the back of another one. "And you can't have it." He wasn't wearing a comm, but projecting his voice so that everyone could hear it had its uses. He was even using the ventrilouquy version where it sounded like he was using a comm, instead of deafening everyone within a hundred-mile radius.

That would perhaps be a bit counter-productive. He wasn't even sure the Chitauri had ears.

The huge worms were surprisingly easily dealt with, and Hulk had gotten into Stark tower and smashed Loki against the floor. Multiple times. Gabriel had entertained himself by watching.

The twist came in the form of a bomb.

Gabriel followed Iron Man up to the portal, flying alongside him and nudging him back on track so that he could make it into the portal. It was also him who stopped Natasha from breaking the energy barrier around the Tesseract quite too soon.

While they all gathered on the ground around their fallen teammate, Gabriel flew Natasha down there and then went straight back up, hiding the Tesseract in a pocket of space only he could access. The machine was dashed against the gravel on the rooftop, splintering and leaving bits of metal mixed in everywhere.

The archangel regarded the destruction in satisfaction and turned to leave, before wondering what had happened to his alternate self. They wouldn't just leave Loki alone in the tower where Hulk had smashed him, would they?

As it turned out, they would. Dear Dad, they needed some help.

* * *

"Have you come to gloat?" Loki said painfully, as Gabriel stood over him.

"No," Gabriel said simply, sitting down next to him and wondering if the change in eye color was simply a trick of the light. "I came because it seemed stupid to leave you somewhere you could escape from at any given moment."

Loki chuckled dryly, wincing at the sudden movement in his chest. "I do not believe I am going anywhere at the moment."

"I guess." They regarded each other silently for a few moments, before Gabriel broke the pause. "Why?"

"Please, do not try and be my brother. One of him is enough."

"No, I'm serious. This was a horrible plan. What would you get out of it? Why try and rule the humans, if you care so little for them?"

Loki was silent, then pulled Gabriel close enough to literally speak into his ear.

"If I tell you," he said, "You must share it with no one else." Gabriel nodded, inwardly perking up with interest.

Loki told him of a mysterious Other, who had given him the spear, arcane knowledge, and the power over the Chitauri. "I do not know his goals," Loki admitted, "Only that he desired the Tesseract, for what reason I was never told."

"Why help him, though?"

Loki looked ashamed for a brief second, before indifference flitted over his features. "I was...convinced. I was not-"

"The same way you convinced Arrows to help you?"

Loki's hand on his jacket tightened, and he did not respond. Gabriel took that as a yes.

"Shit." He ran a hand through his hair. "Loki, this could keep you from being in jail the rest of your life, and you want me to keep it to myself?"

Lok's eyes were closed. "I will not be patronized. I could have broken the enchantment at any time. I was-"

"No, you couldn't have!"

"You did."

"And who said I was just a Norse deity?" This startled Loki so much that he opened his eyes to stare at Gabriel in surprise.

Gabriel grinned at him. "I'm way older than you think. I just happen to be Loki as well." He fixed the Asgardian with a stern look. "I'm telling you that you couldn't have broken it. I don't know who this Other is, but if he was old enough to give you knowledge- what did he tell you?"

"Ancient knowledge," said Loki stiffly. "Enough to teach me how to use the power of the Tesseract."

"Well, if he's old enough to know that, then he's definitely way to old for you to deal with on your own. Loki, there was nothing you could have done."

"I could have resisted longer." Loki closed his eyes again. "It does not matter. Even if I were to return to Asgard as something other than a prisoner, I would be an outcast. I am no true Asgardian."

"Hey!" Gabriel leaned in. "Listen to me. I wasn't Norse either, but I practically grew up in the Norse Pantheon back in my universe. And do you know what? Odin may not have been my real father, Frigga not my real mother, Baldur and Thor not my real brothers, but we grew and fought and played and learned together and they were sure as hell my family."

"Odin is not-"

"So you're adopted, big deal. You are Loki Silvertounge and you are damn well going to get over it because look at Thor! Odin told him about it, and the first thing he did when he got here was-"

"Was kidnap me to bring me back to Asgard," said Loki bitterly.

"Oh, so he didn't try and convince you to come back home?" From what Gabriel had seen, that was the exactly what the Asgardian would have done. "He still thinks of you as a brother, and I have no doubt that Frigga misses you as well. Didn't she teach you magic at first? How to make yourself powerful?" Gabriel had a feeling there were a lot of similarities between Loki and his experiences with the Norse pagans. "The rest of Asgard may not have thought that warriorlike, but did Thor ever put you down for learning magic?"

"Yes."

"When he wasn't mad at you?" Loki opened his mouth and closed it again.

"Exactly." Gabriel sat back a little bit. "So what you need to do is reevaluate what you're doing and stop your little temper tantrum. Ah-" he held up a hand as Loki opened his mouth. "No interrupting. You are going back to Asgard and you are going to explain things to them. Thoroughly. And I am coming with you so I can ask Odin what the hell he thought he was doing."

Gabriel didn't know the entirety of it, but a quick look at what Loki was thinking gave him the bare necessities. Informing Loki that he wasn't even Asgardian in a society that regarded his species as barbarians and savages? Not the best idea.

Loki stiffened suddenly, eyes panicked, and Gabriel turned around [still sitting] to see the Avengers standing behind him, Thor looking like someone had kicked his puppy.

"I'm gonna take a wild guess and say you've been standing there for a while," said Gabriel.

* * *

"What do we do now?" whispered Tony as all six Avengers met a couple floors down from where Gabriel was watching Loki. Gabriel had ignored Loki's protests and told them about Loki being under the influence of the Tesseract as well, creating quite the dilemma.

Thor shrugged, but at the same time there was a hopeful glint in his eyes. "I must still take him back to Asgard," he said, "But hopefully this will cause the Allfather to be lenient on him."

Clint was silent during the whole discussion, and no one wondered why. He had been all set to hate Loki, but if he did...he'd have to hold himself at fault for what happened.

"Do we hold him at fault for what happened?" Bruce asked, wincing when he remembered Clint. "I'm sorry-"

"Don't be." Natasha said harshly. "And of course we won't. If he wasn't in control of himself, then this 'Other' is responsible for the whole mess."

There was silence for a minute, then Steve spoke up. "Who's going to tell Fury?"

* * *

Natasha was immediately volunteered to tell SHIELD what they had learned. She rolled her eyes and went in to report.

* * *

Loki furiously remained silent in Gabriel's presence, tight-lipped and refusing to even look at him.

"I'm not going to apologize for stopping you from going to jail, you know."

* * *

"Hey," Bruce suddenly stopped what he was doing. "What happened to the Tesseract?"

Gabriel tried to look innocent.


	3. Interrogations and Bad News

**So I decided to continue the story after all, even though no one really answered the poll I put up. I wasn't really sure how to continue the story, which led to the initial hesitation to keep it 'incomplete', but my muse returned and I have a fairly good idea of where I'll go from here.**

**Warning: a bit of foul language.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Avengers or Supernatural.**

* * *

"So what are you?"

The Avengers plus Gabriel were sitting in Stark Tower among the aftermath of the battle. A table had been dragged up, and chairs had been provided from various parts of the building. Fury was sitting in one of them, having come over once it ended with Redhead and demanding a full explanation, even though Redhead insisted she'd given one. Each of the new teammates had to give their perspective on the battle.

"Excuse me?" Gabriel was lounging at the other end of the table, feet resting on the wooden surface. He raised an eyebrow at Fury. "_What _am I?"

"Don't get picky on me," said Fury menacingly. "You claimed to be Asgardian, but Loki's said that you told him you were more than that."

"What, and he's a reliable source now?"

"You seemed to trust him when he said he was mind controlled."

Gabriel turned injured eyes to where Loki was lying on the sofa with Mjolnir on his chest. "I see how it is. You want payback for me keeping you out of jail."

"Do be quiet," was all Loki said, and Gabriel was sure he was rolling his eyes.

"Answer the question," said Tony. "I'm a little curious myself. Maybe you could tell us where that blade came from?"

"What, this?" Gabriel grinned and propped his arm up, letting the blade slide out against the pull of gravity. He saw Natasha raise her eyebrows for a moment, and let it fall back into his sleeve. "It's an angel blade," he said, wondering what they would do with the truth.

"A what?" Costume seemed to do a double take at the name. The other six looked skeptical.

"Angels don't exist," said Arrows. "Unless it's just a fancy name?"

"Please," Gabriel took his feet off the table. "Angels don't exist? Then where did I get this, may I ask."

No one had an answer for him. They were all looking at each other secretive-like, wondering if he was telling the truth.

"Say angels really do exist," Fury's lone eye was squinted in suspicion. "Where'd you get that? One of them just gave it to you?"

"It's mine."

Costume was staring openly now, not that any of the others were any better. Thor was staring at him thoughtfully.

"You're saying you're an angel," said Bruce dryly.

"Yep." Gabriel grinned his best shit-eating grin.

Stark muttered something like "I'm not drunk enough for this."

"I didn't think angels looked like that," Costume was looking at him curiously, like he was honestly trying to figure Gabriel out.

"Enough of this," Fury stood up, his hands hitting the table loudly. "I want the absolute truth and no angel cock-and-bull story is going to-"

Gabriel decided to make him shut up.

He stood up sharply, matching the motion Fury had made seconds earlier, and spread his wings with a noiseless whoosh of air and the lights crackled, clouds gathering outside as the interior of the penthouse was lit up with fragmented lights, illuminating a shadow on the wall of huge wings which wrapped around the walls and left the occupants of the table staring. There were obviously three wings on each side, even with the overlap which merged them all into one big shadow which was slowly expanding over them.

Gabriel tucked his wings back in. The lights returned to normal. The clouds outside dissipated. He sat back down.

Fury looked speechless for once, staring at him in absolute silence. Thor looked blown back by the display - most likely he had been able to sense the power behind it.

Loki spoke again from the sofa. "I have to say I was not expecting that."

"Loki you don't get a voice in this conversation, you're the criminal."

Tony finally spoke. "What the hell?" He said eloquently.

"No, Heaven, actually."

"How is it," asked Redhead carefully, "That an angel ends up as Loki?"

Gabriel leaned back in his chair. "I assume you've all read the book that describes how Luci got the worst time out of all eternity?" Bruce looked like he was trying not to laugh. "Well, that happened, everything went to shit, I got the hell out before I got roped even further into the whole mess. Hung out with the Norse pantheon for a while. Figured it would be the last place they'd look for me."

"Which angel are you?" It was Costume who asked, and he scratched his head as Gabriel's attention focused on him. "I was just thinking, there are a lot of angels..."

"Believe me, I know." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Birthdays are a mess. To answer you - I'm Gabriel."

"The archangel." Fury's voice was flat.

"Unless something shifted between universes, yes."

"How did you end up here?" Bruce had taken off his glasses and was fiddling with them as he spoke. "If Loki was trying to summon another Asgardian, why did it work on you?"

Gabriel shrugged. "Maybe the spell was just geared towards his alternate self."

"No it wasn't." Aaaaaaand Loki continued to ruin Gabriel's life. "It was intended to find another Asgardian. It would only have worked on a non-Asgardian if they were closer - that is, in between universes."

Gabriel scowled, then saw the expectant faces around him. "There was a small incident right before I landed here."

"Small?" Thor laughed a little. "I know not of any small incident that can catapult a person into the realm between worlds."

Gabriel sighed. "There was some stabbing involved. Really, Lucifer is very rude. Killing someone with their own angel blade - hmph. I'd like to see what would happen if someone did that to him."

The table had gone absolutely silent. Gabriel thought [slightly vindictively] that if they were going to act all shocked and upset then they shouldn't have asked.

Costume was staring at the table, obviously burning to ask a question but not actually doing so. Tony's mouth was open in a silent 'wtf' face. The three actual spies were exchanging looks and carrying on a silent conversation. Bruce had dropped his glasses. Thor looked like he was about to reach over the table and hug Gabriel. Good Dad, the only other place he'd seen puppy eyes like that was on Sam Winchester.

It was Arrows who finally voiced what they were all thinking. "_Killed?"_

"Oh please. Don't tell me you think angels are immortal or some sort of crap like that."

"So they can be? By what?" Fury had no such qualms about sensitivity.

"Bit rude, Eyepatch." Tony snorted at that - Gabriel was the first to say that to Fury's face. "If I were feeling any less generous, you might be on your way to the first floor by express.." And by that, he meant out the window. Fury obviously got the hint, and backed off, however reluctantly.

"I apologize," Thor said, a humbled expression on his face. "If I had realized why you were-"

"No worries," Gabriel waved him off. "It's not-"

"So that's why you zoned out in the lab earlier!" Tony said triumphantly, Bruce giving him a startled look. "You started thinking about it!"

"Yes," said Gabriel testily. This guy was reminding him more and more of Dean, insensitivity included. "Pardon me for fully realizing that I basically died."

Tony looked abashed, but didn't shrink back in his seat or anything. Overconfidence, Gabriel thought to himself.

"It's not that big of a deal," Gabriel shrugged. "If I wanted to I can just-" he reached out to fly back up to Heaven.

It wasn't there.

His eyes flew wider in realization of what he was seeing - or rather, the lack of it.

"What?" Fury said. "What just happened?"

Gabriel steadied himself on the table with one hand, something only Thor noticed.

"You can just what?" Redhead pressed.

Gabriel looked up at them. Determinedly keeping his voice steady, he said "I'm not sure if your universe is royally fucked or better off."

"What. Just. Happened?" Fury demanded.

"I can't get to Heaven." Gabriel spread his hands in a gesture of helplessness. "It's just not there." He tried not to betray how much that shook him. "I don't know if souls will go up there anyway, or if they're stuck here. But hey, at least you'll never have to deal with my brothers."

This all seemed a bit heavy on Costume, who Gabriel guessed was religious. "There isn't a Heaven?"

"Not that I can sense. Not here."

Tony leaned back in his chair. "Fuck."

Gabriel nodded, and wondered if the man would mind if he raided the bar.

* * *

**So! Some realizations. I'm not sure where I wanted to go with this chapter, so I'm keeping it short. The reason Heaven isn't there is simple: Time passes a lot faster in the SPN verse. So while Gabriel was getting summoned and fighting the Chitauri, time was going by in his old universe so that by the time he tries to access Heaven again, Metatron has closed the gates, sealing it off in every universe [not just Gabriel's]. While we have seen that there are doors to Heaven in the original universe, Metatron isn't concerned with any other worlds and hasn't opened any doors there for the simple reason that he doesn't care. When Team Free Will manages to open Heaven again, Gabriel will be able to access it again.**

**Please read and review!**


	4. Mutants and a Party

**Welcome to chapter four!**

**Your reviews were very helpful - I'm glad you guys were so happy/surprised with the chapter. From here, we'll be continuing on, but I can't say how long it will be before he gets back.**

**READ THE NOTE BELOW**

**A note on time differences - last chapter I said that, in the span of a couple of days, heaven had been closed in the SPNverse. However, looking back on that, keeping that time difference would make the story go way too fast. SO here's how it really went - I'm assuming that post-death and between universes, where Loki found him, time was so messed up and convoluted that by the time Gabriel got back to a steady time stream it was already mid-s6 in the SPN verse [since Heaven has only just closed when Gabriel checks], which means that three days equals roughly 2.5 seasons in the Avengersverse. Let's say that, if one spn season equals maybe half a year or so, then 1/2 year=3 days, or 2 months per day in Gabriel's old universe. This is just to give me enough time to take the story in the direction I need it to go! It might take a while to get Heaven back open after all.**

**Here's where we stand right now: this chapter starts off where the other one ended, which is the beginning of s9 in spn. Say it takes roughly two more seasons [1 year] to open heaven again, that's a little over a week in the Avengersverse.**

**Just trying to make sure we're all on the same page!**

**WARNING: a bit of a fight in this chapter, and I'm not sure whether it's very graphic or not so I'll put a warning here just in case it is and anyone's bothered by that. Watch out for it then. It's in 'day 2'.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Avengers  
**

* * *

After the conversation in the penthouse, it was decided that Gabriel would stay in Stark Tower, while they figured out what they were going to do about the situation. Steve left, probably to go break another punching bag and work through all the things Gabriel had told them. Gabriel thought that he must have been religious, since no one else seemed as affected by the news as he was.

Tony in particular hung around Gabriel a lot, and Gabriel explored the entire tower while he avoided the scientist. The R&D floors were particularly fun. Gabriel wished he could get away with puling anything like he'd done to Sam and Dean. Then he remembered that he could.

All four floors were covered in a myriad of sticky, incredibly hard to get rid of materials, and the people who worked there were all missing for several hours. When they returned, they all refused to talk about what had happened. The equipment was, mysteriously, unharmed.

Of course they blamed Gabriel, but you can't do much to an archangel that will actually hurt them.

No one actually saw Gabriel until later that night, when Thor went looking for him and dragged him back to celebrate their victory over the Chitauri with pizza. Gabriel didn't touch the pizza, to Thor's disappointment, but reluctantly stayed in the room as the group talked and ate some conjured candy bars. When Tony discovered this skill, he demanded candy until an irritated Gabriel filled the room with it.

Only Thor was pleased with that development. The rest of them decided that Gabriel didn't have to come to parties any more.

* * *

**Day 1**

Gabriel was sitting on the table when Redhead wandered into the kitchen, heading for the coffee machine and rummaging through the cupboards in search of the right kind. Gabriel wondered why humans were so slow in the mornings. It seemed like a disadvantage, if they were in any sort of danger.

It was kind of stupid.

As Redhead whirled around, Gabriel belatedly realized that he'd said that out loud.

"Just thinking out loud." He smirked at her. "No need to be so twitchy. Is that another thing that happens when you're tired?"

Redhead only glared at him and turned back to her slowly percolating coffee. The creak of the door alerted Gabriel to someone else's presence, or it would have if he weren't an angel and hadn't sensed them coming ten minutes ago.

"Morning," Arrows yawned, sniffing at the air. "Is that coffee?" Redhead had poured herself a cup, and put the pitcher on the table within his reach.

"All yours now. Cups are over the sink."

Arrows grumbled as he fetched a cup, pouring himself a generous amount.

Gabriel stuck a foot out as he passed, tripping Arrows and making him curse liberally. Some of his coffee spilled on the floor. The man glared at Gabriel. "What was that for?"

"What?" Gabriel said innocently. "Aren't you suppose to be a spy? I figured you'd pay attention to your surroundings."

Arrows kept glaring, and went back to the counter to refill his cup. He stayed there this time, drinking his coffee and keeping an eye on Gabriel at all times.

"How are you so damn cheerful?" He threw his cup in the sink, the question addressed to Gabriel, who had started humming. "Do angels not get tired like the rest of us?"

"None of your business."

* * *

**Day 2**

Gabriel was wandering the streets of Manhattan. He'd never really paid attention to the place before, spending most of his time either on the run from his siblings, with the Norse pagans, or in inconspicuous cities. Well, okay, there had been that one time he'd gone to Las Vegas, but that was just once. Every century. It was an annual trip, okay?

Anyway, he was beginning to wonder why he hadn't come here before. They were the perfect grounds for a Trickster to play on, and the police were corrupt enough that a case too nonsensical would be filed away and never touched. Unless there were hunters here, of course, but unless this universe had another version of the Winchesters, Gabriel would be fine.

Manhattan was huge. That was one word to describe it. The city covered the entire island, two rivers separating it from the rest of New York state. The people who lived there seemed to be constantly out and about, rushing everywhere and filling the sidewalks and streets.

Gabriel, of course, cared nothing for this.

What he did care about was his new prey. He had temporarily gone back to his role as Trickster, the unfamiliar rush of power he got creating a grin. It wasn't technically angel power, but that was the best part - and his siblings never wondered how he did it. Well, that was because they never discovered him using it, but those were just technicalities. It was time to find a suitable victim.

The first possible one walked by quickly. It was a kid in a hoodie and low-hanging pants and ew, was it really fashion to go around with your underwear hanging out? Gabriel wrinkled his nose and pulled the kid's pants up for him. He jumped, hands flying to his waist and looking around suspiciously, but no one around him gave him a single glance, and Gabriel sniggered invisibly.

The kid pulled his pants down again, and the sniggers turned into a frown. Gabriel ended up following the kid, pulling his pants up every time his underwear showed and the boy growing more and more panicked until he eventually pulled them up himself and ran, sprinting down city blocks and dodging other people. Gabriel grinned victoriously and settled down to wait for his next victim.

The second one wasn't even close to as innocent. It was an older businessman, who talked on his phone as he walked, shoving past people. Gabriel was about to just shove him back when he heard the threats he was saying into the phone, in a low voice. There was a woman on the other end - his wife, obviously.

_That _instantly called for something more extreme. Gabriel followed the man around all day, doing little things - his coffee wasn't as hot, his paperwork didn't get through in time, his day in general was a mess. When he got into his car to go home, it refused to turn on. Even if he had called a mechanic down to fix it, the brakes had been cut [though had he actually crashed because of it, they would have magically repaired themselves, and an open case of beer appeared on the passenger seat].

When he did arrive home, walking several blocks from the bus station and in a horrible mood, it was to an upscale white house with all the fancy modern toys. Gabriel watched with narrowed eyes as he pounded on the door, a nervous woman opening it, and stormed past her, shouldering past like she was a stranger on the sidewalk.

Bastard.

Gabriel followed him inside, slipping in effortlessly as the wife closed the door. He was in the living room, yelling for her, and she walked in, trembling.

There was yelling, lots of it. He screamed, taking out the frustrations of the day, and just kept doing it until the woman was a trembling mess. Gabriel was about to remove his vocal chords when he made a move at his wife, drawing back a hand.

Oh _hell _no.

Gabriel moved in instantly, letting himself become visible as he cracked the man's wrist with his grip. Only the man could see him - the wife would only see her husband struggling with an invisible entity. The lights flickered with his sudden appearance, and Gabriel flicked them off entirely, lest the neighbors see. It wouldn't do to be arrested. The 'Avengers' certainly wouldn't understand.

"Let's see how _you _like it," Gabriel hissed, seeing the man's eyes widen in horror before he unleashed the power of a Trickster on him.

A Trickster was not just a mindless killer. They found someone who deserved nothing, found what they did and what idiotic idea they carried with them and used. And when they used their power, it turned that idea against them, held them to it and put them on the reverse side.

The man howled, thrashing in Gabriel's grip, and Gabriel nonchalantly flicked a hand at the wife, putting her upstairs and asleep in bed so she didn't see it. Every single wound the man had ever inflicted on his wife was coming back to him, bruises blooming on his body and even a couple cuts opening. Gabriel watched disinterestedly as the man's leg bent itself out of shape with a sharp _snap._

When the man lay on the ground, bruised and bloodied, Gabriel bent down so that their faces were equal, and gave him a savage grin before delivering a sharp kick to the head.

He flicked a hand at the phone as he stood over the unconscious man, the handset ringing by itself and dialing 911. The police would be here eventually if no one answered, but for now Gabriel cleaned himself of any stray specks that had made their way onto his clothing, and flew to a random place in the city to stroll back to the Tower. That was enough of the Trickster for one day.

He never noticed the man that had been outside the window the whole time.

* * *

**Day 3**

"There's nothing _interesting _going on," Tony whined as he threw the newspaper down. Gabriel, who was sitting opposite him, raised his eyebrows.

"Interesting?" Pepper repeated with raised eyebrows. "How about that press conference later? That should be interesting."

Pepper Potts was a gift. She'd been furious at Tony when she'd come back from wherever she was, and surprised with Gabriel - well, actually, she'd had to take a break to deal with the news that angels were real, and they were hosting one - but it had all worked out. Gabriel had been thrilled with her snarky attitude and the news that she was here to 'take care of and deal with Tony'.

"Press conferences aren't interesting."

"Well too bad, you have to go. I know the rest of the Avengers are going to be there."

"What," Gabriel broke into the conversation. "Even Arrows and Redhead?"

Pepper stared at him in confusion while Tony burst into uproarious laughter.

"That's good," he said, still laughing. "My God... _arrows." _

"You mean the spies?" Pepper quickly figured out who he meant. "I don't know, but I doubt it. I mean, spies aren't really supposed to be public, are they?"

"I think that's the exact opposite of what they're supposed to be." Gabriel answered for Tony, who was still laughing, though it had quieted a bit and was now more random giggling.

"Do you even know their names?" Tony asked when he'd recovered. Gabriel shrugged.

"Why do you think I have nicknames? I know you, and, uh...well, I knew that other science guy's name."

"That's Bruce," said Tony, still obviously amused. "If you're coming tonight I'd better tell you. 'Arrows' is Clint, and Natasha is 'Redhead'."

"Mhm." Something Tony had said struck Gabriel. "Wait a minute. What do you mean, 'I'm coming tonight'?" He asked incredulously.

Pepper wordlessly handed him a newspaper. The front page was an article about the attack, with a couple blurry pictures and an article wondering about the identity of the man who some people reported had singlehandedly taken down some of the monsters that had attacked New York.

"Dad damnit."

"You actually swear by your father?"

* * *

Gabriel tried his best not to glare at the sea of people he and Tony had to fight their way through to get into the meeting hall. The conference doubled as a sort of party, all the rich and famous being invited and a swarm of paparazzi on the fringe, taking as many pictures as they could. The actual questions would be asked in the second half, to give the Avengers plus Gabriel time to escape afterwards. Loki had been sent home with Thor yesterday, so he wasn't here to be questioned.

Lucky him. Gabriel scowled at the nearest paparazzo, who blanched and ducked away instead of taking a picture.

The hall was huge, and tables laden with little snacks were laid out along one wall. There was a part of the floor that was elevated slightly, with a table and microphones on it, which Gabriel assumed was for him and the superhero group.

"How long is this party, again?" He hissed to Tony, who smirked at him.

"Counting the conference? About six hours." Gabriel tried not to groan, he really did. "The conference starts after the three-hour mark, if that helps. But there's another hour after that, since the conference only lasts for two."

"It doesn't." Gabriel looked around for someplace he could hide for three hours. Unfortunately, there didn't seem to be any side room or closets, and he couldn't just pop away unless he intended on revealing his angel identity to everyone. Which he didn't. Honestly, that kind of attention was the last thing he needed.

He pulled at the suit Tony had made him wear. The billionaire had offered to buy him a specially tailored one, but Gabriel had shrugged him off and said he didn't need one. Tony had later helped Pepper corner him about it, an hour or so before the event, and the look of shock on their faces when he'd simply turned his normal clothes into an immaculate tuxedo was definitely worth the time it had taken to avoid the topic. That didn't mean it was comfortable, though, and while in the car with Tony [the man drove satisfyingly fast] he had discreetly turned it into a more casual suit.

An unknown amount of time later, the hall was jam packed. People lined the railings of the second-floor balcony, women dressed in shiny dresses with lots of jewelry and men in suits of varying colors, all talking pleasantly to one another and not so discreetly sneaking glances at the Avengers.

Plenty of glances were directed towards Gabriel, of course, since he was the only unknown member of the four that had arrived ['Clint' and 'Natasha' were in unknown locations - Gabriel had been right when he said they wouldn't come]. Instead of doing the polite thing and pretending he didn't notice, Gabriel usually stared back until the person looking got embarrassed and looked away. Tony, who was directing him through the crowd, seemed endlessly amused by this.

"You're pretty rude for a...you know," Tony said, depositing Gabriel next to him at the bar. He signaled to the bartender. "Basically the opposite of what anyone would expect."

"Humans have an astonishingly bad record when it comes to depicting 'mythical' creatures accurately." said Gabriel idly, waving the bartender away. "I won't even go into what they've done with some of them. Did you know practically no one even knows what a tulpa is?"

"A what?"

"Exactly." Gabriel got up to wander around. He might as well try to entertain himself.

The worst part of the party was his apparent popularity, since he was the biggest unknown there, and Gabriel was dragged into no less than seven different conversations before he made it halfway across the room. An hour and an half was wasted this way, and it took another half hour for Gabriel to escape an awkward conversation with an elderly businessman who seemed to think Gabriel was interested in buying stock in his company. Gabriel didn't even know what stock was. He certainly didn't have any money to buy it.

"It can be rather boring, can it not?" Gabriel startled and turned to see a man smiling at him. "Forgive me, I thought maybe you heard me coming up behind you. I am Anton." The man offered his hand. Gabriel left him hanging.

"Yeah, I guess it's boring." He definitely did not want to end up in another half-hour conversation.

"Then it is good to find ways to pass the time, yes?" Anton smiled. "I understand if you do not wish to talk."

"Mhm." Gabriel wished the guy would leave, but he kept talking, about his company, about the last time he was at a party here, everything.

"I know the press conference is not for another fifty minutes, but could you perhaps forgive me for asking a question?" Anton asked, tapping Gabriel on the shoulder.

"Hm?" Anton seemed to take Gabriel's question as confirmation.

"Excellent! I was wondering, what manner of power do you have?"

Gabriel stared for a moment before he realized he was being asked a question. "I thought the questions thing was later."

Anton's smile looked slightly stretched, as if it were fake. "I realize that, but I was hoping I could have one little answer."

"You can wait like everyone else." Gabriel leaned against a nearby railing - he'd somehow made his way to the second floor - and looked away from the man, out the window.

"You cannot answer one question?" Anton seemed almost overly upset. "Perhaps I can give my own answer, in exchange."

Gabriel looked back at him sharply as he felt a bubble of power expand around them. Anton was grinning, and people were passing around what Gabriel could tell was the edge of the bubble without noticing what they were doing.

"What the hell is this?" Gabriel tried poking a finger through the barrier. It went through easily, and he hastily pulled it back as someone gave the finger a startled look.

"It is my own power," Anton said proudly. "I am what they call a 'mutant'."

"Hm." Gabriel studied him carefully. Now that he looked, he could see a little well of power in the man's soul. "Interesting. Are there any others?"

"Oh, there are many." Gabriel followed him as Anton started walking downstairs, watching people part around them like the Red Sea without even realizing it. He made the stairs widen around them as they passed, to stop people from falling off. "I believe there is a school here, dedicated to training them."

"Really?" Gabriel made a mental note to find the place. "You went there?"

"Oh, no no no." Anton chuckled, slightly bitterly. "I was too old by the time the man began it, and already possessed a fairly good grip on my skill. As you can see, I have already improved." They were standing by a wall on the first floor now, to keep out of the way of guests and to prevent Anton's 'skill' becoming too obvious - a hole in the middle of the crowd would have drawn some attention, regardless of the man's power.

"So you're self-taught."

"Precisely. You understand well, Mr...?"

"Gabriel. Isn't that a bit dangerous, though?"

"Oh, certainly. It's why the school was created in the first place. Mr. Xavier had only the best of intentions, I'm sure."

Gabriel frowned. "Did something go wrong there?"

Anton sighed theatrically. "I simply believe...it was, perhaps, too little, too late for some of us." His expressions abruptly transformed into a sharklike grin. "After all, there are always mutants like me."

Gabriel stood straight up and barely had time to defend himself before something struck a sharp blow to his head.


	5. Kidnapping and a Search

**Cliffhanger! I apologize but I really thought ending it there would be the best place.**

**There isn't much to explain here now, so I'll move on to the story!**

**WARNING: Gabriel gets a bit foul-mouthed later on. If you don't like profanity watch out for it.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Avengers.**

**[it's been brought to my attention that I accidentally wrote Harry Potter instead of Avengers. My mistake. I fixed it.]**

* * *

**Day 3, continued  
**

Tony turned around as Steve tapped him on the shoulder. "What?"

"It's time for the conference to start," Steve informed him. "Have you seen Gabriel? I can't find him."

"He wandered off. Didn't want to get bored or something. I figured I'd better just let him do whatever. How many things can get the drop on a..." Tony glanced around. Gabriel had expressed his wish for his species to be kept quiet. "You know."

Steve sighed. "That doesn't change the fact that he's supposed to be here for questions and he's not."

"Fine." Tony sat his glass back on the counter. "I'll help you look. Where's Bruce?"

"On the second floor. We thought Gabriel might have gone upstairs."

"Alright." Tony looked out into the crowd with a grimace. "Ugh. Finding one person in this crowd is going to be a pain."

They combed through, asking people if they'd seen the wayward angel. Several had, and several more had talked to him, but none within the last hour or so.

"How hard could it be to find him?" Tony hissed. "He _knows_ he's supposed to be up there with us and he was totally fine with it! There's no reason or place he could be hiding!"

Steve looked grim. "Maybe he's not in the building." He met Tony's confused look. "What if someone did get the drop on him?"

* * *

"You're telling me we _lost _the angel?"

"I don't know what other explanation there could be. We've gone around a hundred times - he's not in the building at all."

Fury ran a hand over his face. After SHIELD had been called, the party was disbanded in a hurry, guests murmuring as they were ushered out and SHIELD guards refusing to give explanations, though no doubt the paparazzi would cook up something ridiculous.

Fury swore under his breath, and then called out to two agents who were hurrying by. "Nichols! Tesla! You brought the tech van, right? I want a tape of the CCTV in front of me by tomorrow - see if you can find when Gabriel disappeared off the map."

The two agents nodded and made their way to the door even faster, disappearing through the rapidly dispersing crowd toward an unmarked black van.

"How exactly do you kidnap someone like Gabriel?" Bruce asked.

"Take him by surprise?"

"I think he'd be able to fight his way out, considering he took down those worms in a single stroke. How much harder could a human being be?"

* * *

Much harder, apparently, if said human beings were mutants.

Gabriel wasn't unconscious, per se. But there were a lot of rules with taking a vessel. Number one, permission only. Number two, wounds still hurt a little. Number three, if the vessel is too damaged, it takes a while to fix, and the angel is temporarily disabled.

Such was the problem with the blow Gabriel had been dealt.

Anton's friend was obviously a mutant as well. The hit he delivered to Gabriel's head fractured his vessel's skull and pierced the brain. It wasn't terrible, as Gabriel could easily heal it, but a wound as grievous as that took some time to fix. Brains were messy things. As it was, while the brain was damaged, Gabriel couldn't move his vessel. At all. And so he was currently lying on the floor in the back of whatever van Anton and his ally had gotten - or stolen. The second mutant was sitting in front of Gabriel, in the back, as for some reason he wasn't in the front with his accomplice.

Back at the party hall, Gabriel's head had been immediately covered, probably to prevent any blood splatter. He'd only been hit after the towel - if that was what it was - had been secured, leaving no evidence that anything had happened behind. It had definitely been an hour by now, and Gabriel only hoped that someone noticed he was gone when he didn't show up for the conference.

His Grace roiled inside his vessel, trapped and immovable for now. Gabriel idly wondered where he was going. These idiots had managed to injure him enough to temporarily disable him, but as soon as Gabriel healed he'd show them exactly why you didn't mess with an angel. They probably thought he was dead.

Huh. Gabriel didn't think he knew anyone in this universe who he'd managed to piss off enough to warrant assassination. Had someone seen him with that man?

Nah.

He could feel himself healing, flesh and bone knitting back together seamlessly. Gabriel tried wiggling his fingers. It sort of worked, and the man sitting next to him shifted.

Gabriel froze.

He felt rough fingers at the towel over his head, and fresh air fell on the injured portion. The man screamed.

"Anton!"

Anton swore, and Gabriel felt the vehicle jerk under him. "What?"

"He's not fucking dead!"

"Of course he's not, you idiot!" Gabriel's heart sank. "You think this guy hires us for an average job? What, did the thing heal itself?" Indignation coursed through Gabriel at being referred to so callously.

"He's almost completely fine!"

"Well then, hit him again if you're so worried! He can't do anything if he's hurt, now can he?"

A fresh blow landed on Gabriel, striking deeper this time. Gabriel scowled inwardly and resigned himself to being paralyzed for a while, settling in to think. Who had assigned these two a job to go after him? And how did they know how to disable him?

_Well,_ he thought vindictively, _at least now there's blood all over the floor of this van._

* * *

**Day 4**

"We've got the CCTV!" A harried SHIELD agent swept into a room full of tired Avengers. Well, most of them were tired. Clint and Natasha had arrived a few hours ago from who-knows-where. They were perhaps the least dependent on coffee.

Fury sat bolt upright at the news. "You got something?"

"I think we've located the point where, um, Gabriel was removed from the hall, sir." The agent handed over a tablet, sliding it onto the table the exhausted group were sitting at.

"Good. Any leads you got, follow up on them while we go over this." The agent gladly left the room. Fury messed around on the tablet, managing to activate a projected screen.

Everyone leaned forward, watching the screen with interest. The cameras had been installed by Stark Industries a year or so ago, since Tony held so many events there. It was not only less grainy than the usual security footage, but in color.

The screen was frozen on a shot of an interesting scene. The camera had captured the faces of two men, Gabriel and an unknown, who were in the middle of a strange gap in the crowd.

"Do we know this guy?" Steve pointed to the man in front of Gabriel.

"We're putting him into facial recognition now." Fury sent of an email, most likely to some other department of SHIELD. He pressed play. The picture leapt into action, and the two men walked past the camera, the crowd sliding in a circle around the two men like water over rocks. The camera switched views, to another angle a little farther away but still with a relatively clear view of the two. They seemed to be talking peacefully.

"Stop," Tony ordered, the video freezing on voice command. "What's that?"

There was a shadow behind video-Gabriel, almost right behind the man.

"Someone snuck up on him?" Bruce sounded slightly disbelieving. "But he's-"

"Why don't we _play it _and _find out_." Fury glared as he started the video. The conversation seemed to continue, and they watched as Gabriel abruptly straightened, the shadow clamping something over his head and dealing what must have been a harsh blow. Even with the not-so-great footage, the group could clearly see that whatever was over his head was stained red. Several of them winced in empathy.

Video-Gabriel went limp, the shadow catching him and the man's face flashing for a brief second as he reached for his companion. They both left, pulling the angel with them. The recording stopped there.

There was a pause as everyone digested what they had seen.

"Okay," Tony leaned forward. "Obvious question. How did no one noticed the guy getting beaten over the head in a crowded hall?"

"Probably the same reason the all avoided them," Steve said. "Did you notice the little area of blank space around them? That can't be natural."

"So you're saying the guy he was following had some sort of superpower?" Natasha nodded. "That would make sense, but why did Gabriel follow him?"

"Maybe the guy was showing off," Clint suggested. "Distracting him. He looked like he was talking a lot, probably trying to keep Gabriel from realizing he was leading him into a trap."

"So we've got a theory." Fury leaned back in his chair. "And we've got a suspect with some sort of power that can make people around them ignore what's going on near him. We'll have info on the guy soon enough, but first we gotta find out where they went."

"There's probably another camera somewhere around the hall," Bruce said, getting a nod from Tony. "We could have someone look around those and see if we see anyone suspicious, or someone driving off?"

A beep sounded from the other tablet. Fury picked it up. "Facial recognition got back fast." He turned the tablet around so the other five could see it. "Says his name's Anton Bragnisky. Russian, nearly convicted in several crimes back in his homeland. Escaped before he was sent to jail, obviously came here. It also says he's a mutant."

"Mutant?" Steve asked. "Like that Xavier guy I've been reading about?"

Tony sent the Captain a surprised glance, but Natasha nodded. "The whole mutant rights movement has been gaining steam," she said. "There have been some setbacks, mostly because of mutants like this, who work for hire in all sorts of jobs."

"Why would a mutant want Gabriel?" Bruce took off his glasses and started wiping them on his shirt. "No one knows the guy. _We _barely know the guy. He showed up out of the blue two days ago. How could he have made enemies in such a short time span."

"Maybe when he went out yesterday," Tony mused aloud. Everyone turned to face him. Fury's eye narrowed dangerously.

"I'm sorry, Stark." The director said, venom in his voice. "I must have misheard you. I thought I heard you say that Gabriel went out on his own yesterday."

"Well hey, I'm not gonna keep him locked in the Tower," scoffed Tony. "How could I? Besides, he's on our side."

Clint groaned. "Tony, this is a whole new set of dice. Anything could have happened yesterday. Did he say anything about it?"

"No. I didn't think it was important to ask him."

"Great." Natasha furrowed her brows. "Let's assume Gabriel met someone yesterday and made them mad enough to hire someone to kill him. But I really doubt a blow to the head is one of the weaknesses he mentioned he had. What happens when these guys are making away with the body and the body wakes up?"

The group pondered this. "He kicks their asses?" Tony suggested.

"From what I've seen," Steve said, "He can transport himself anywhere instantaneously. It's been over fourteen hours - if he had disposed of his attackers, wouldn't he be back by now?"

"Okay, so he's definitely in trouble." Bruce frowned. "But now we ask, how do they know how to subdue an angel?"

* * *

Gabriel's kidnappers were very rude.

When they finally stopped, Gabriel was roughly blindfolded ["It didn't kill him the first time, idiot, he's probably still conscious." "But he's totally still!" "Yeah, and his eyes are open and looking right at you."] and dragged into a building that smelled mustier than an untouched basement. It must have been a warehouse. Gabriel thought he could hear waves, but they had traveled far - he might have said they were still near Manhattan if not for the travel time.

He'd been taken deeper and deeper in, and with a sudden rush of stale air he'd been bundled into a wooden chair and tied into place, the blindfold and towel being ripped off. Deeply regretting that he couldn't even blink yet, Gabriel watched as his two captors poured something around the square borders of the room. He sincerely hoped it wasn't what he thought it was. They didn't have that here, right? No one knew about that.

A match dropped on what was undoubtedly holy oil put a damper on those thoughts. Anton and his accomplice were standing just outside the room, watching him in fascination. Gabriel could guess the reason; he could feel his head healing [_again!_] and as the last piece popped into place, he rolled his head around and blinked furiously, trying to get the dust out of his eyes.

"Enjoying the show?" His voice was hoarse, since he hadn't spoken in the last fourteen hours. He was please to see that the accomplice looked like he was about to wet himself, while Anton had gone rather pale. The door slammed shut, and Gabriel scowled at what he could see of it. "Well, that was rude."

He sighed and looked around, taking in the fire ringing him parallel to the walls and the rope tied tightly around his torso, securing him to the chair.

"Christ on a stick I'm fucked."

And the worst bit was he was still wearing the stupid suit.

* * *

**Day 5**

"We've located the van recorded driving away from the hall approximately around the time Gabriel was dragged away." Natasha tossed a file full of pictures and papers onto the table. "It was abandoned in a parking lot near the Brooklyn side of the Brooklyn Bridge. There was a large puddle of blood in the back - it had dried oddly, and forensics guess that someone was lying in it for a couple hours."

Steve had gone slightly green as he saw the crime-scene photos of the blood. He put them back down. "How'd you find it?" He asked, obviously trying to distract himself.

"We put out an APB on the van and the license plate number," Clint informed them. "Brooklyn police saw the car with the doors hanging open, noticed the blood when they went to check it out, and called it in. We got there a couple hours later."

"So they're in Brooklyn?" Bruce didn't make a move to pick up the file.

"We think so. Fourteen hours driving, that could get them to the other side of Brooklyn easily. There are a bunch of abandoned warehouses along the wharfs, but those go on for a couple miles, and they're scattered in between actual warehouses. There's no easy way to tell which one Gabriel's in." Natasha sat down, making herself comfortable on the sofa.

"Great. So we've gotten nowhere." Tony sagged into the cushions.

"We've narrowed it down a little bit. You should learn to take what you get." Clint settled next to Natasha. "So what now?"

"Is there a way to see if they stole another car?" Bruce asked.

Clint snorted. "Do you know how many cars get stolen in Brooklyn on a monthly basis?" He seemed just as resigned as them. "Not really. Unless we find one of the kidnappers and make them tell us, there's not a whole lot we can do to find him. We've let the Brooklyn police know about it, and they'll keep an eye out. But we don't have a tracker in him to lead us right to their hideaway."

"What about that guy, Anton, and his superstrength sidekick?"

"We're looking for them too. Facial recognition is running all the time. If one of them shows his face within reach of a camera, we'll know."

* * *

Gabriel was, to put it lightly, bored.

He'd been left in this room for hours. He was pretty sure the sun was up by now, and he'd been here all night. The fire was still burning - an unfortunate side effect of holy oil was that it didn't run out until someone doused the fire.

Strangely enough, Gabriel couldn't sense anyone outside of his room, or even in the building. He was sure he hadn't been abandoned there, though, and had puzzled over it all night. The only way they could avoid him sensing them was the same warding Castiel had given Sam and Dean, or a similar kind written on the walls. There weren't any sigils in his room though, and Gabriel eventually gave it up.

Gabriel cursed his luck, but his burning curiosity to find out who the hell had organized this was only getting stronger. This was all from his _old _universe. How had it gotten here? And who here knew how to apply it?

And now escaping was even less of an option. Without his powers, Gabriel was practically doomed to fail.

These questions were answered sometime around what Gabriel guessed was noon. Footsteps sounded outside the door. Gabriel jerked - he wasn't used to telling when people were coming using human methods.

The door creaked open. It was the two from the day before, accompanied by a third unknown. The third regarded the flames, keeping away from them so carefully that it immediately put Gabriel on guard.

"Well, well." The man chuckled. "I see my friends have performed admirably." He turned to Anton. "You'll receive your payment, of course - just as promised. You, Vargas - you will receive yours as well. Now leave us be."

The two men, Anton and Vargas, turned and walked out of sight, their feet tapping against the floor until they were out of hearing range as well.

The brown-haired man stood in the doorway, watching Gabriel for such a long time that it almost made Gabriel uncomfortable.

"You gonna do anything anytime soon?" Gabriel snarked. "I don't have all day. I'm a busy man."

"Oh, but you're not a man, are you?" The man smirked, leaning against the doorframe. "Gabriel, Gabriel, Gabriel. When I noticed you the other night I almost didn't recognize you."

Gabriel narrowed his eyes. What the hell was this guy talking about? "What do you mean?"

"That man you followed?" Oh, the abusive husband. "I saw what you did to him. I had noticed your power following him earlier. I must say, I didn't expect an archangel to be quite that vicious. But then again-" The man sighed theatrically. "The memory of my treatment should have been warning enough."

"Who the hell are you?" Gabriel demanded.

"Oh, I don't think you're in any place to be making demands. But it's no fun if I don't tell you, is it?" The man stepped over the flames and came closer to Gabriel, making the archangel wish he could lean back. "For your information, in this universe I'm known as Justin Hammer."

"Never heard of him."

"No, you wouldn't have, would you?" 'Justin' seemed almost amused. "You know, if not for this warding, I'd be offended that you didn't recognize me, Gabriel."

Recognize him? They had known each other? Gabriel's mind whirled, testing and discarding possible identities Hammer could have possessed.

"This universe seems to be a favorite dumping ground for us," said Hammer. "I've no idea how many of us are in the city right now, but a good deal of them must be awake. Your entrance into this universe was quite dramatic - it created a ripple, as it was, that startled my old memories right out of the little corner they were hiding in."

_Us? _Gabriel fervently prayed that the man he was currently facing was not Michael. Or Lucifer.

"I might as well tell you who I was, since you'll never realize it otherwise," said Hammer, sighing theatrically. "It's rather boring to just tell you, but in our old universe, I went by Aziraphale."

Gabriel's eyes widened.

"Oh yes." Aziraphale grinned wickedly. "You have no idea how thrilling it is to see you again, _brother._"

* * *

**Yes. Another cliffhanger, because I am a cruel person.**

**A note: Aziraphale was an angel who sided with Lucifer during the whole human debacle, and fell with him. He was a pretty high-level demon - yellow eyes, like Azazel, who was another fallen angel. My idea here is that Aziraphale was killed when Hell was stormed to rescue Dean because come on, the Righteous Man and the first seal? Dean had to have had some pretty heavy protection. Anyway, demons and angels don't really have an afterlife, so God basically just dumps them in other universes and reincarnates them. Gabriel coming there was more blunt, since it wasn't God who did it but Loki, and as a consequence any ex-demons or angels in the Avengersverse got their memories all jostled up and recovered their past lives. The idea is shamelessly taken from inukagome15's 'The Last Archangel' which is where I got some of this plot idea from. You should go read that story. It's really good. It's got Gabriel in it, too.**

**Anyway, please read and review! You want the next chapter soon, right? Reviews help.  
**


	6. A Demon and a Decision

**I hope I didn't wait too long to put up this chapter, but like I said, no new chapter until I get at least a few more reviews! No one's said anything about last chapter's cliffhanger, so I'll assume you're not too mad at me about that.**

**I'm afraid Gabriel's in for a rough time until the Avengers get there. Aziraphale isn't exactly the most forgiving type. I hope you guys don't hate me too much for what I'm going to do to him!  
**

**I got a bit stuck on this chapter, in terms of the plot. It ended up about as long as previous chapters, but if you thought it was a little slow or didn't flow right don't hesitate to let me know! PM or a review works fine. Feedback of any form is awesome!  
**

**WARNING: Some profanity. Gabriel, as I said, gets tortured a little bit later in the chapter, and I tried not to make it too graphic but feel free to avoid it if you don't like that stuff.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the Avengers**

* * *

**Day 5, continued  
**

Gabriel bit back a sharp comment as he watched the two lackeys argue in front of him. Aziraphale had been busy with something, obviously, or he wouldn't have sent these morons to do his dirty work.

He didn't know what Aziraphale was trying to do, but he'd sent his lackeys to get _something _from Gabriel. He still wasn't sure whether the two standing in front of him were arguing about a physical object or information.

"We have to trick him into doing it, obviously! Hammer spent a lot of time and money getting his hands on this guy, we gotta be careful with 'im!"

"I say we just force him to hand it over," said one, glaring at his friend. Gabriel's laugh actually made them stop for a moment, heads swinging around to glare at the tied-up angel instead of each other.

"You think that's funny?" One of them growled.

"No, of course not." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "You're very intimidating. Continue shouting, please."

They both shot him dirty looks, and continued the conversation for another twenty minutes in hushed whispers before the first one left in disgust. The second quickly followed, stepping carefully over the holy fire, unwilling to be alone in the same room as Gabriel.

There were several other tries to coax Gabriel's blade from him, all unsuccessful. The first group actually tried to intimidate him. The second tried beating him up [he was pretty sure the leader of those three had a broken hand]. The last group had stayed so far away from him, dangerously near the flames, that he pretended like he was going to jump out of the chair they had tied him to and sent them all sprinting out the door.

It was really pathetic. If Aziraphale wanted anything to go right, he'd have to get some better goons.

* * *

**Day 6**

"No luck with Gabriel?"

"None." Steve threw down that day's newspaper. "It's like he vanished off the face of the Earth."

"Fury said they've been getting weird energy readings all over New York city."

"Seriously? Something new is coming?"

"Apparently, no one can say for sure." Tony made himself comfortable in a chair across the table from Steve. "Which basically means they have no idea what the hell is going on."

"Do you think it's related to whoever took Gabriel?"

"Who knows." Tony took a sip of whatever was in his glass. "They want us to check out the site of the most recent spike, though. Ready for a crosstown trip?"

* * *

The other three Avengers were waiting for Steve and Tony at the scene. "You took your time," Clint called as the duo got out of Tony's shiny white car.

"I practically got a ticket coming here," Tony said incredulously.

"Calm down, children." Natasha's voice was completely neutral, but a smile pulled at her mouth when Tony and Clint shot her insulted looks. "Last night SHIELD recorded a spike in energy around this intersection. We're not completely sure what it was. Fury had someone take a look ta the readings they pulled from the Chitauri battle. They're close to the ones Gabriel was putting off, but not quite the same."

"So is it another angel?"

"I don't think so." Bruce had been fiddling with a small tablet, one Tony had given him. "These readings...they're similar in some ways, but when you look closely the newer ones are drastically different...as well as significantly less powerful. Whatever we're dealing with, if it is another angel, it's not at full power."

"And what about something else?" Steve asked, shifting when attention was directed towards him. "I mean, if angels exist, what other kinds of supernatural stuff is out there? I looked up some stuff yesterday - there are a hundred different kinds of creatures."

"How many of them are similar to an angel?" Clint asked dryly. "I agree with Bruce, I think we've got another one on our hands."

"So what do we do?" pressed Tony.

"The readings were narrowed down to that shop over there," Natasha pointed to a small herbal remedy shop. "We go in and talk to the owner."

They walked down the sidewalk, the door jingling as Steve opened it and held it open for the others. The woman at the counter looked up as the group filed in.

"Welcome," she said politely, speaking with a slight Indian accent. "How can I help you?"

"We'd like to talk to the owner, if they're available," said Natasha, equally politely. "There have been some noteworthy occurrences we've noticed around here."

The woman frowned, and looked at the group a little more closely. She definitely recognized them, and after a moment said "Wait here please."

They loitered in the small lobby of the shop, Steve peering with interest at the little herbs and spices neatly arranged in bowls and jars on shelves everywhere. "What kind of shop sells all this?"

"It's a herbal remedy shop," Clint said. "They do all kinds of stuff. You know, or people who like natural medicine more than taking pills or whatever."

The woman emerged from the back again, followed by another Indian man who gestured for them to come behind the counter. "Just two," he said in a thick accent.

A quick, whispered discussion led to Steve and Natasha following the man into the back of the store, where stacks of shelving and a small file cabinet surrounded the door to a small room which contained a desk and a chair. The man sat down behind the desk.

"I am afraid I cannot offer you a chair," he said. "But it is a small inconvenience. I am Josha, the owner of this shop. Manpreet says you wish to talk to me?"

"Yes." Natasha was perfectly neutral, her face betraying nothing. "It's about an incident which occurred several days ago, on the seventh. Were there any strange visitors that day, or anything at all unusual happening?"

Josha pondered the question. "The seventh...? Nothing unusual, as far as I remember. Ah," he gasped, sending Steve onto alert. "There was that man, though."

" 'That man'? Could you describe him?" Steve asked.

"He was not very tall. He wore a suit, a grey one, and he had brown hair. He was a very average-looking man. I was on counter duty that day, and so I saw him." Josha shuddered. "There was something about him, though...in his face, or perhaps simply his presence...it was not good. I was glad when he left quickly." Josha leaned forward, as if imparting some great secret. "I do not think he was human," he whispered.

Natasha shared a look with Steve, after that nugget of information. "What did he buy?"

Josha opened one of his desk drawers with a squeak. "I think I kept his receipt...we do not have much business, so it will be easy to find. Ah, yes, here it is." He drew out a slip of receipt paper. "Yes. He bought many things." Josha suddenly looked nervous. "He, er, bought some powdered yew, some birch bark, a packet of chervil, and some holly ingredients."

"And what else?" Natasha's eyes were narrowed slightly. Even Steve could tell that the man had left something out.

"There is nothing else." Josha's eyes were flicking back and forth, unsure of what to look at. He was a terrible liar.

Natasha leaned forward and placed her hands on the desk. "Josha. We are experienced with the idea of the supernatural. I need to know what else he bought."

Josha shifted uncomfortably. "There was one more ingredient he bought," he admitted. "A tiny packet of devil's shoestring."

"What's so bad about that?"

Josha leaned back, away from Natasha. "It has many properties, especially in spells. I promise you, we are a simple shop. I sell supernatural ingredients only on the side."

Natasha leaned back and regarded Josha with hooded eyes. She turned to Steve. "He's telling the truth," she whispered, turning fully so that her back faced the owner. "But I don't know what devil's shoestring is supposed to do. I've never heard of it."

"Me neither." Steve had turned himself to face the same way. "So what now?"

Natasha faced Josha again. "Thank you for your time," she said curtly. "Is there any chance you have a picture of this man?"

"Yes," Josha nodded. "We have cameras in the store. I can send you a picture."

"Address it to Stark Tower, label it urgent. We're on a short schedule, I'm afraid." Natasha lied smoothly, pulling Steve back to the front of the store with her.

The other three were now waiting outside. The woman from the counter was sweeping something into a dustpan.

Natasha muttered something unpleasant under her breath and joined them outside. "What happened?"

Clint looked sheepish. "I knocked something over."

Tony looked amused. Steve was just frustrated. "We got something from the owner," he told them. "There was a mystery man in here at the same time the energy peaked. He's sending us a picture from the security footage later."

"Great." Tony rubbed his hands together. "Now lunch?"

"Now we go to the next place one of these was recorded," Natasha told him, causing Tony to deflate slightly. "This was only the first, Stark, we've got six more places to go."

"Goddamn it."

"And I'm coming with you, just to make sure you actually show up."

* * *

"Gabriel." Aziraphale strolled carelessly into the room. "I heard you're being uncooperative."

"More like your lackeys are morons." Gabriel had gotten tired of his brother's theatrics about five minutes into Aziraphale's little speech the other day. "You should get some new ones. Maybe you could even hire someone who can count higher than ten."

"Very funny," snarled Aziraphale, the smile dropping from his face as fake ones usually do. "But perhaps you'll reconsider your position." He pulled a length of chain out of the bag he'd brought with him.

"Please tell me those aren't for what I think they're for," Gabriel eyed them warily. "I didn't know you were into such kinky stuff."

"_Shut up!_" Aziraphale roughly clapped them around Gabriel's wrists.

"Wow. You know, that's kind of pointless since I'm already-" Aziraphale covered Gabriel's mouth with one hand, trying to get some silence, only to recoil with a disgusted cry a moment later.

"Did you just lick me?" He stared incredulously at Gabriel, who was gagging.

"Okay, bad idea. Holy hell what have you been doing? That tasted like bad herbal tea."

"None of your business," said Aziraphale stiffly. He cut the ropes binding Gabriel and seized the chain, straining to pull it up and hook it on a metal hook which was installed in the ceiling, something Gabriel hadn't noticed in the dim firelight.

"Like I said," said Gabriel as Aziraphale dragged away his chair, leaving him hanging by his wrists. "Kinky." His feet dragged against the floor, the chain having enough give to let his knees bend a little. Gabriel wondered what Aziraphale was trying to accomplish by doing this.

"I swear, one more word out of your mouth, Gabriel..." Aziraphale stared at the angel in front of him. "And you will regret it."

"Righty. No words."

Aziraphale loomed in front of Gabriel. "About you giving my associates a hard time..."

"A hard time? They were idiots. I just laughed at them." Gabriel received a backhanded slap for his comment. He glared up at his fallen brother, the expression melting into surprise as he saw him gingerly holding his hand. "That hurt you?" His mind whirled.

Aziraphale glared, but Gabriel had already come to his conclusion. "Oh Dad. You're _human_." He stared in outright shock.

"Yes," Aziraphale grudgingly admitted. "And now I suppose you see why I need you?" He returned to his mildly threatening position over Gabriel, since here he was taller by several inches. "I may not know the secrets to all rituals, but I know for a fact that you held a bizarre interest in them." He smirked at Gabriel, seeing the comprehension dawn. "And I assure you, whatever secrets you know about regaining demonhood, I will rip out of you."

"You're welcome to try," Gabriel said tightly. "I can assure you it won't work. You don't have anything that can harm me."

"Not yet." Aziraphale smirked chillingly and leaned towards Gabriel, uncomfortably close. Gabriel leaned back, to try and keep some space between them, and as he did so Aziraphale took a thick wad of something out of his pocket and shoved it into the angel's face. Gabriel felt his heart start beating faster, something shooting through his veins reminiscent of panic.

"What the hell did you do to me?" To his humiliation, Gabriel's voice was shaking slightly. Aziraphale chuckled lowly.

"Just a little bit of hensbane," Aziraphale seemed to be delighting in Gabriel's induced terror. "Makes you feel paranoid, doesn't it? Like the whole room is full of demons and hellhounds. Can you imagine it?" And Gabriel, unfortunately, could, his imagination making the shadows the flames cast loom closer in the dim light of the room, and growls sound from the corners as red eyes glowed like coals.

In his panic, he barely noticed Aziraphale slip a hand under his jacket and remove his angel blade.

"That's much better." Gabriel's eyes jerked back to the man in front of him, widening further as he saw the silver blade in the demon's hands. "Oh, don't worry, I won't use it on you right now," Aziraphale leered. "I think I'll wait until you've calmed down a bit."

He left the room, gingerly stepping over the flames, blade in hand and leaving Gabriel hanging in a room with only nightmares to keep him company.

* * *

**Day 7**

"This is pointless." Clint let the papers fall out of his hands. "We've checked the places out. We've got descriptions of the guy. We know what he bought. We've gone over all this a million times!"

Tony peered at a sheet of figures. "We're trying to figure out what he's doing with all this, Clint." The man had bought a number of regular and supernatural herbs, at varying shops all over New York.

"I wish Thor were here." Steve said wistfully. "He'd probably know what was going on right away."

"Well, tough luck for us then." Tony picked up a list of the herbs. "What if these have got some sort of hidden meanings? Don't plants symbolize specific stuff? JARVIS, what do you say?" Tony glanced up at the ceiling.

"_It would be easier if I knew which plants to look up, sir."_

"Right." Tony looked down at the list again. "Uh, yew, birch, chervil, and holly are the main four."

_"The berries of yew trees are highly poisonous," _JARVIS responded. _"I__t is commonly associated with longetivity and power. Birch trees can be seen as symbols of renewal, or rebirth. Chervil is usually a sign of goodness in others, but in terms of witchcraft is seen as an herb of immortality. Holly is a protective plant, and in one case is mentioned with a reference to reincarnation."_

"Okay," said Clint slowly. "I don't know about you guys, but I'm seeing a pattern."

"That's not all of them." Natasha snatched the list from Tony. "What about myrrh and saffron?"

"_They are both listed as having demonic connotations."_

"Demonic?" said Steve, shocked. "Bruce, I thought you said it was similar to Gabriel's energy. Demons are hardly like angels."

"Who said we're dealing with demons?" Tony said, laughing nervously. "We're not, are we?"

"It's hard to say at this point. Maybe someone got really into witchcraft...?" Clint suggested.

Natasha spoke up. "It could be either or. The similarities in energy...plenty of demons were supposed to be angels fallen from heaven."

"I can't believe I am actually having a conversation about this." Tony put his head in his hands. "My life has gotten completely ridiculous."

"We're not done yet." Natasha addressed JARVIS again. "JARVIS, what about devil's shoestring, and hensbane?"

JARVIS was quiet for a moment. _"It is used to protect against evil in most cases, but has very old connections with witchcraft and...hoodooo." _He sounded disdainful of the word even as he said it. It did sound a bit nonsensical. _"However, it is another herb associated with power as well. Hensbane is commonly known as the devil's eye, and associated with death."  
_

Bruce frowned. "If this guy was buying all this witchcraft stuff, why get something to ward off evil?"

"Maybe he's trying to protect himself from whatever he'd like to summon," suggested Steve.

"I don't think so," said Tony, who had joined the conversation again. "What about it also meaning power? That fits with the pattern of the other ones."

Natasha went over what JARVIS had told them. "Longetivity and power, renewal and rebirth, immortality, reincarnation and protection, death...I think Tony might be right."

"But what is he doing with them?" Clint slumped back in his chair. "I don't know about you guys, but I don't intend on becoming an occultist."

"I don't believe that's necessary," Bruce said dryly. "But someone trying their hand at witchcraft now? I mean, it was believable in the Middle Ages, but-"

"Some people will believe anything, Bruce." Natasha remarked. JARVIS interrupted the conversation.

_"Sir, there is a letter marked urgent waiting for you in the lobby. It was sent by courier."_

"Seriously?" Tony said. "A courier?"

"It must be the guy from the first shop," Steve said. "He said he'd send a picture marked urgent, remember?"

"Yeah, alright. Send the kid up, JARVIS." Tony waved a hand vaguely. It took several minutes before the _ding _of the bell announcing the elevator's arrival sounded.

The kid was wide-eyed, confronted with a room full of Avengers. Tony walked over and plucked the envelope from his hands. "Thanks. Here you go." He handed over a couple of bills as a tip, and steered him back into the elevator.

"That was quick," Steve said as the doors closed again.

"I'm in the mood," said Tony, ripping open the envelope. He took out a black and white photograph, doing a double take as he looked at the man pictured.

"Holy shit," he said, flabbergasted. "That's Justin Hammer."

* * *

Gabriel was hanging with his head down when Aziraphale reentered the room.

"Gotten over your little dose?" His head snapped up, eyes narrowed at the demon. Aziraphale laughed. "Don't look at me like that. It was completely necessary. Besides, you've recovered, haven't you?"

_Not entirely, _a little voice whispered in the back of Gabriel's mind, and he ruthlessly shoved that voice into the tiniest corner he could find.

"Sure," he said coldly, eyeing the blade-shaped bulge in Aziraphale's jacket. The demon smiled, noticing his gaze, and drew it out.

"I told you it was necessary," he said, swinging the blade in an arc. "You would have never handed this over to me under any other circumstances. I needed you distracted enough for me to take it, and I certainly wasn't going to kiss you."

Gabriel wrinkled his nose at the mere thought of _that._

"I see we share those feelings." Aziraphale said calmly. "Luckily, we're past that." He stopped swinging the blade. "Let's get down to business."

Gabriel stiffened and tried to brace himself, but the blade only cut through his jacket. Aziraphale ripped it off him, throwing it into the flames, and opened the front of Gabriel's shirt.

"There now, that's much easier." And _now _the blade was cutting into him, and Gabriel had to restrain a scream. This was the second time in a week that someone was using his own angel blade against him, and it hurt more than he remembered. The light escaping from the shallow cuts that Aziraphale had scored across his chest did nothing to improve the light in the room.

"I'll make this simple." said Aziraphale calmly. "You are going to tell me the ingredients and exact process for performing a ritual for me to gain my power back. Easy enough for you to understand?"

"Go back to hell," Gabriel growled, and bit back a yelp as the blade abruptly dug back into him, the arm this time. It was deeper than the cuts, and Aziraphale twirled the blade without removing it.

Gabriel couldn't hold back a nearly-silent whimper.

"I said, understand?" Aziraphale dug in slightly deeper, cutting muscle this time. Gabriel clenched his teeth, determined not to say anything.

"Well," A wicked glint appeared in Aziraphale's eyes. "I suppose I'll have to try harder then."

* * *

"You've held up for a remarkably long time." Feet stopped near where Gabriel was hanging; the archangel couldn't muster the energy to look up. "I thought archangels were supposed to be strong?"

Aziraphale tipped Gabriel's head up, cupping his chin in one hand. Gabriel's head was nodding dangerously, the angel drained from hours of torture.

"Are you going to help me yet?" Aziraphale smiled pityingly at Gabriel and damnit, he had never felt so humiliated in his life. A dig of the blade into the _exact same spot _Lucifer had stabbed him in tore a yell from Gabriel, wrenching his vessel's vocal chords and Grace struggling to move past the binds being trapped in holy fire put on it. His power had been restrained by the orange flames circling the room so that barely any light showed out of the cuts - an impressive feat, considering that at this point Gabriel was sporting several deep cuts, a stabbed arm and a blood-soaked dress shirt.

"Nngh..." Gabriel had never felt so helpless in his billions of years of existence. Lucifer's fall came a close second, but at least then he had been able to _try _and do something. Here, the chains keeping him in locked in the room were the only things holding him up.

"Will. You. Help. Me." Aziraphale's face was right in front of him. "It's an easy question, Gabriel. Come on. Answer already." The blade dug in a tiny bit farther, sending a fresh wave of pain through the battered archangel. "I've seen what happened to you." Gabriel had felt it when the demon used herbs before him, throwing together a slapdash ritual and using it to temporarily enhance his power, using the brief high to batter his way into Gabriel's exhausted mind. "I saw what happened to you, before you ended up here."

He let go of Gabriel's head, so that the angel was staring at the blade pushed into his own chest, and traced a circle around the wound. "He stabbed you right here, didn't he? Lucifer...well, using someone's own angel blade wasn't completely his idea, though he was the first to use yours against you." Another tiny bit ripped through skin and muscle. "What if I did the same to you now? Just stabbed you here and now, just like the first time...what would happen to you then? Would you come back here, reborn? Would you go back home?" Aziraphale laughed, a cruel, mocking laugh. "Oh, but Heaven isn't for angels, is it? You would do so much better to accept my offer, Gabriel..."

The blade was withdrawn with a wet, disgusting sound. Aziraphale was unfazed, most likely because of the years he'd spent in the pit. Demons were naturally desensitized to things like this. He knelt next to Gabriel, peering at the hanging angel.

"Yes or no. It's that simple." Gabriel didn't reply. "No?" Aziraphale sighed. "I didn't want to have to do this, but-"

"Alright," Gabriel rasped.

Aziraphale's smile was predatorlike, gleaming in the dim light. "Excellent choice."

* * *

**Please read and review! The button is right there *points* go ahead and press it!**


	7. Preparation for Confrontation

**We're getting closer to the climax of the story, but for now it's still building up! I hope you guys enjoyed the last chapter, but I wouldn't know since I never get more than one review per chapter anymore.**

**Sorry for complaining.**

**Anyway, I hope this one fulfills your expectations, even though it seems like nobody's reading this anymore. Enjoy!**

**WARNING: some profanity and torture in this chapter. Less profanity than the last one, though. I tried, for those of you who are bothered by it.  
**

**I'm posting a reply to HailHydra here, since I can't message you back; I haven't gotten very far into Marvel, mostly just watching the movies, and I had to actually look up who 'Trask' was. So no, but he's not going to be in this. I've got a pretty solid idea of where I'm going.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or Avengers**

* * *

**Day 7, later that night**

The bell over the door jingled as a customer entered. Josha looked up, confused - the shop wasn't open, how had he gotten in? - and promptly dropped the jar he was holding. Neither of them paid attention to the shatter of glass and the powder now blanketing part of the floor.

"You!" Josha backed away fearfully as Aziraphale approached, smiling deceptively calmly.

"There's no reason to panic," the demon said. "I'm only here for some more ingredients.

Josha shook his head fearfully. "No more! I will not serve...I know what you are?"

"Oh, really?"

An employee entered from the front door, a word freezing on her lips as she took in the scene. Aziraphale grabbed her by the neck, and Josha's eyes widened.

"Don't-"

"Do what?" The two men Aziraphale had brought with him came in, shutting the blinds and locking the door. "Harm her?" He glanced down at the woman in his hands. "Oh, I won't do anything to her...as long as I get what I want." Aziraphale's grin flashed in the dim light of the shop. "I'm sure you're willing to cooperate, right?"

* * *

**Day 8**

"Hey!" Clint barged into the kitchen, holding a newspaper open to the front page.

The occupants of the kitchen, all of whom were sleep-deprived and functioning on coffee, looked up slowly. "What," Natasha said shortly.

Clint waved the newspaper at them. "That Indian guy from the herb shop - they found him last night, and that employee we saw. They're both dead, and the shop's totally ransacked."

"What?" Steve looked horrified. Tony paled, and Natasha slowly lowered her coffee. Bruce dropped his glasses into his cup, something no one noticed until later.

"When did this happen?" Tony asked, burying his face in his hands.

"It says last night," Clint told them, the newspaper rustling in his hands as he read from the article. " 'Several jars were emptied, and both employees were found in the back office...no known enemies, no one with enough motive for something like this."

"Did they find anything on the security tape?" Steve asked.

"It doesn't say. We might need to go down to the NYPD and ask around, see if we can get any extra information."

"What about what we found last night?" Natasha glanced over at Tony, who blew out a breath and shrugged.

"None of this seems like Hammer's M.O. He's a politician, he tries to be an inventor, but nothing like this. But..." Tony trailed off.

"What?" Steve pressed.

"I was thinking, he was arrested after the expo. How come there's nothing on him breaking out of jail?"

"Maybe you just didn't see the article," Bruce suggested, fishing in his coffee for his glasses.

"No, that's the thing. I had JARVIS look it up, see if he had anything. The most recent article about Hammer was talking about him getting arrested, nothing about him getting out."

"That's...more than a little odd," Clint admitted, dropping the newspaper on the table. "Something big must have happened."

"Gabriel big?" Silence greeted Natasha's suggestion.

"You think Gabriel's got something to do with this?" Tony seemed incredulous.

"Something happened to make Hammer go after him," said Natasha, "If it was Hammer who kidnapped him and we haven't been on a wild goose chase this entire time, then they know each other somehow."

"She has a point," Bruce noted. "But I don't think we should be throwing Gabriel under the bus. And I'm not saying that just because he's an angel."

"Alright," Tony pushed his chair back, standing up. "How about we go see what we can about these murders, and then we decide what to do."

* * *

Anton and Vargas were manning the security room in the abandoned warehouse Aziraphale had chosen. There was a wall of stacked TV's, each monitoring a camera of which there were many, showing every part of the building. There was even one in the prisoner's room, but Anton avoided looking at that one, mainly because it unnerved him how little the man moved. And the blood, too. He had been paid to take part in this whole scheme, but he never stuck around long enough to witness this part.

"What's up with you?" Vargas was leaning back in his chair, smoking a cigarette. Anton wished he'd stop, as the smell of smoke was getting oppressive.

"Nothing, I just hate the smell of smoke."

"What, a guy can't enjoy himself?" Vargas grudgingly removed the cigarette from his lips, tossing it in the air before he stubbed it out. Anton nearly had a heart attack - the cigarette had nearly hit the ceiling.

"What are you doing!"

"What, I put it-"

"You idiot!" Anton's problem made itself known, as the fire alarm the cigarette had passed finally did its job and set the alarm off, the sprinklers all over the warehouse somehow still functional.

Anton glanced at the TV's, seeing with horror that there was one in the thing's room. And it was slowly dousing the flames. "Moron! That thing's going to get loose!" Vargas's eyes widened.

"What do we do?"

"We shut it off, idiot! Go! There should be a manual control in the office!" Both of them dashed out, Anton grabbing the clay jar that their employer had left behind, and a lighter. "I'll go and make sure it doesn't get out!"

The two men dashed off, praying that their prisoner didn't get out.

* * *

Gabriel flinched as the cold water hit his skin, the alarm wailing in his ears. Looking up incredulously at the sprinkler in the ceiling, Gabriel closed his eyes and looked at the holy fire circling the room, which was dying out bit by bit.

Yes!

His Grace rocketed out. Gabriel was in too much pain to go anywhere, Aziraphale having been quite thorough even after he agreed, and limited himself to a flare of energy.

The room was blindingly bright now, but it didn't bother Gabriel. His Grace flared out, sending a signal that could probably have been seen even in Asgard, sending out a wordless message.

The light had died down completely by the time Anton barged in, face panicked, and Gabriel was slumped in his chains as the man hurried to re-light the fire.

Gabriel sent a halfhearted glare at the man as he left, the fire springing back up and the door slamming, but the brief and furious use of so much Grace in one go had exhausted him - even under normal circumstances, he'd need at least a day to recharge. Gabriel let himself slip away into darkness.

* * *

On Asgard, in the now-repaired Bifrost chamber, Heimdall's eyes widened as a blast blew past him, carrying a message even the most ignorant of the Aesir could have sensed. He saw the flare on Midgard, and his eyes hardened at what he saw.

Heimdall spoke, his voice echoing up the rainbow bridge and into the palace - after all, he had a little magic of his own.

"Bring down Thor and Loki immediately."

* * *

In the palace of Asgard, Loki shivered, the last vestiges of the flare dying out as they reached him. He did not hear it clearly, or see it, but its familiar taste [Gabriel had a very singular kind of power], the vague foreboding it carried, and Heimdall's voice echoing even to his room led him to hurriedly close his book, getting up and setting a fast pace towards the throne room.

If they did not let him go to see what was the matter, Loki would find his own way to Midgard.

* * *

"Did you relight it?" Vargas asked anxiously as Anton returned. The latter simply nodded, collapsing into his chair.

"Good," Vargas exhaled in relief. "How about we don't tell the boss about this, right?"

"Right." Anton nodded, fingering the cross in his pocket and praying that things would turn out alright.

* * *

"Holy crap, more of this?"

"We just finished looking over a murder scene, Natasha!"

"Enough!" The assassin snapped. "There was a huge energy blast twenty minutes ago in Brooklyn, it's off SHIELD's charts. We think it might have been Gabriel."

"What?" Tony stopped abruptly. "What are we waiting for then? Let's go!"

"If he is in the center, we'll have to narrow it down first," Natasha informed them. "It was a very large blast, apparently, and there are still people working on finding the exact center."

"So we've still got nothing." Steve drooped slightly.

"Of course we have something," Natasha retorted sharply. "In the meantime, I think you'll want to get ready - we should have something soon eno-"

A thunderclap cut off the rest of her words, causing everyone to swivel and look out the window. Clouds were gathering that weren't there before, rolling in from nowhere and booming after every spike of lightning.

"Where did - Thor?" Steve looked at the others, before a huge light array slammed down on the deck area of the penthouse. The lights were a brilliant rainbow color, blue being the most dominant, and Thor strode out of it, the light dying down to reveal Loki behind him.

"What has happened?" He demanded, striding into the penthouse.

"Thor, how did-" Thor cut Steve off.

"There is no time. Heimdall saw what had occurred here. What happened?" The god growled, setting each of the Avengers on edge.

"There was an energy blast," Tony said carefully. "We think it might be-"

"Gabriel," Loki finished, looking pale. He and Thor exchanged a glance.

"How did you guess?"

Loki looked grim. "The last traced of that blast reached even us, in Asgard."

"Was it him?" Bruce leaned forward. "Tell me we're looking in the right place."

"If Loki says so, than it must be." Thor looked suddenly weary. "I fear for him if we are too late."

"Too late for what?" The air in the Tower had become suddenly tense, almost tangible.

Thor turned solemn eyes on his teammates. "That was no blast," he told them. "It was a cry for help."

* * *

"What do you mean, you let him get kidnapped?!"

* * *

Natasha hung up the phone. "That was SHIELD," she informed the others, glancing with raised eyebrows at the destruction Loki had inadvertently caused. "The Bifrost was apparently a bit too hasty getting here - the storm scrambled some of their computers. It'll take a while to get back on track locating Gabriel again."

Thor looked down guiltily, while Loki continued looking furious. "If I had known-"

"There's no use making threats," Steve warned. "What's done is done, and we've been searching for him ever since he disappeared."

"Then show me what you've found!"

"Brother," Thor held out a warning hand. "Perhaps a nicer tone?"

"I'll show you a nicer tone," Loki snapped, "When we retrieve my alternate self!"

Bruce's eyes flicked down, avoiding looking at Loki - they had forgotten in the mess exactly why Gabriel was there in the first place.

"Everybody calm down," Natasha glared collectively at the occupants of the penthouse. "This is a bit of a crisis and you are all going to handle it like the mature adults most of you are."

"Most of-" Another glare quelled Tony's comment, and Natasha seated herself, the room now completely silent.

"We're going to go over this case for Thor's sake, and then we're going to call Fury and see if he's got anything. Understood?" There was a lot of nodding. "Good."

* * *

Aziraphale was not the kind of person you could keep secrets from.

Especially big secrets.

And especially not the kind of secrets that involved a white energy flare over Brooklyn.

All in all, the demon was not in a good mood when he returned.

"What. Happened," he growled, standing in front of the control room. Anton and Vargas jumped, startled by his sudden appearance.

Anton swung around in his chair nervously. "Boss! Um. We didn't see you there."

"Something happened here while I was out." Aziraphale stepped closer. "Something involving Gabriel." Step. "You two are the only ones here, currently." Step. "Tell. Me. What. You. Did."

Vargas swallowed nervously, his employer now looming over him and silhouetted dramatically by the light from the door.

* * *

Three minutes later, someone was thrown out of a window in an abandoned industrial district of Brooklyn. The police wouldn't find his body for several weeks.

* * *

Gabriel was brought back to consciousness abruptly, as if someone had dunked his head in a bucket of water. He blinked, making out Aziraphale in front of him.

"I am not in a good mood right now," Aziraphale hissed, cutting a bloody swath across Gabriel's chest, reopening old wounds and causing the angel to cry out. "Tell me what you did!"

"Nothing!" Gabriel yelled, and Aziraphale growled low in his throat and opened another cut on his other arm. "I swear!"

The demon grabbed his chin and forced Gabriel to look at him. "I know you did something, and mark my words," he threatened. "By the end of today I am going to know exactly what it is."

Gabriel closed his eyes and braced himself. He might have slowly recovered from the last session, wounds mostly closed, but this one promised to be much, much worse.

He turned out to be right.

Aziraphale must have warded the building somehow, because there was no way his screams would have gone unheard and unnoticed otherwise.

* * *

Aziraphale wiped off bloody hands as he entered the room, the scowl permanently etched onto his face. "Get me the things I bought earlier," He ordered one of his guards. "I'm going to need to do some emergency magic," he muttered to himself, stretching his hands in front of him. Regular witchcraft might have been degrading, to someone who had once been ranked as a Knight of Hell, handpicked by Lucifer, but it was all Aziraphale had at the moment.

As soon as he got his demon self back, he would exact proper revenge on Gabriel, and then force the angel to take him back upstairs. He smiled, nearly scaring away the guard that was approaching with what he'd asked for, and wondered what their faces would be like when they realized who he was.

"Leave." The guard scrambled out of the room at the order, and it took Aziraphale only a few minutes to draw out the proper circle and assemble the ingredients in the specified amounts. Letting a match drop into the bowl, he began chanting.

"_Locus ab oculis abscondere hoc nemo est qui videre iam hinc...hic locum adire volentibus nec quisquam alius ingrediatur nescio qui de...Averte oculos huius loci quaerere..._"

* * *

"What is it?" Loki looked up, irritated, as he was interrupted from his perusal of the file that had been given to him. Tony was standing behind him.

"SHIELD wants to bring you in," Tony explained. "There's something covering the area around the center of the blast, and they thought you might know how to get around it so that we can figure out which of the buildings Gabriel's located in."

Something in Loki's eyes changed. "Of course." He stood up. "I assume you are to chaperone me?" He asked, voice dry as a desert.

"Yeah," Tony slipped his hands into his pockets. "Not my favorite activity of course, but we don't want you getting thrown in jail."

Loki's eyes narrowed, but he did not otherwise respond. "Fine. I will take us there. Prepare yourself."

"What do you-" Tony bent double as his body protested the transportation, and the dup found themselves in the tech room of the Helicarrier. Every agent jumped up, guns blazing, but Tony waved them down as he stood back up.

"What the hell was that?" He said breathlessly. "You are never giving me a ride again, you hear?"

Loki ignored him, sweeping over to the nearest computer, the agent who had sat there previously eyeing him suspiciously. The Asgardian frowned, contemplating the fuzzy space on the south of the zoomed-in map of Brooklyn the screen displayed. "And the flare came from this area?"

Tony nodded for the agent to answer. "Yeah," The woman said warily. She'd obviously heard of the Helicarrier attack. "We can't narrow it down any farther, due to whatever's protecting the place."

"Hm." Loki scrutinised the map again. "And where are we?"

She pointed to a place on the tip of Manhattan.

"One moment." Loki popped away, startling the agents again. He was back about ten minutes later, when Tony was wondering what was taking so long. "I believe I have identified the ward," he stated. "However, I could not cross it without alerting the person who raised it, and it will take some time to break."

"How long?" Tony pressed.

"I should have the solution by tomorrow," Loki said after a brief thought. "Let us return to your Tower and inform the others."

"Wait one-" Tony was whisked away before he could protest, leaving behind a room full of still and shocked agents of SHIELD.

* * *

"You can break through it?"

"With time," Loki repeated, a bit impatiently. "It is lucky that I thought to bring my things, or else I would have to return to Asgard before I could begin. It will take me no less than sixteen hours to figure out how to break this ward."

"Sixteen-" Clint protested.

"That is, I shall be finished by-" Loki glanced at the clock. "Eleven o'clock tomorrow, by your standards of time." He swept past. "Is there a room where I may work in private?"

"The twentieth floor is pretty empty," Tony answered. "But all floors are under surveillance, just so you know."

"Of course." Loki sniffed. "Very well, I will be on the twentieth floor. Entertain yourselves in the meantime. Perhaps prepare for tomorrow - we know not what kind of foe we face." The elevator doors closed in front of him with that last ominous comment, and the numbers on the side panel quickly ticked down.

"Shall we have something to eat while we wait?" Thor suggested.

Steve blew out a breath. "Might as well," he said heavily. "I don't think I'll have the stomach for food tomorrow."

It was a quiet and solemn group that could be found in the Tower that night.

* * *

**Wow, I'm really getting these chapters out, huh? That's probably why there are so many mistakes when I look back over them. Anyway, the usual, please read and review! It would really help me out here, since as mentioned previously I haven't been getting a lot. You can look forward to the next chapter soon! I hope you're all eager.**

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	8. Heaven's Gates

**So this is most likely going to be the final chapter, unless I add an epilogue. Stop crying, I know you're upset. There's no need to be so upfront about it. No seriously, stop. Oh my god I'm sorry. Are you okay? Do you need a tissue? Look I said I was sorry. Seriously please stop. You're getting water everywhere.  
**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy! I definitely had fun writing this...poor Gabriel. I promise it'll be over soon for him, but I can't say what else he'll have to go through before rescue comes. It's not going to be that easy!  
**

**WARNING: some profanity  
**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Supernatural or the Avengers**

* * *

**Day 9**

**Stark Tower**

**8:00 AM**

The entire team was gathered in the penthouse, ready to leave in a moment's notice. Loki had told them that he wouldn't be done for another three hours, but none of them had been able to simply wait around. Thor in particular looked eager to leave, most likely since out of the six Avengers he was the only one to fully sense the desperation that Gabriel had put out.

The time seemed to inch by. Fury had called to say that there was a squad of SHIELD agents ready, who would meet them at the specified location as soon as they knew they could get through.

Nine o'clock seemed to take three hours to arrive.

Ten came in a similarly sluggish manner, and by the time ten thirty rolled around some of them were seriously contemplating going downstairs and forcing Loki to tell them where to go.

Eleven o'clock.

Loki was a no-show.

Clint began sending furious looks at his teammates, and clenching his bow mutinously. Thor looked both upset and confused, and when Loki appeared silently in the penthouse and eleven thirty-five, he was practically swarmed by demands for explanations.

"What explanations?" He asked angrily. "I told you I would have figured out how to break through by eleven!"

"Yeah, and it's half an hour past then." Steve pointed out coldly.

Loki raised and eyebrow, and hefted the bulging bag at his side. "Is it illegal to gather the required tools and ingredients to break through?"

"You have everything you need?" Thor asked anxiously. Loki nodded once, sending haughty looks at the others in triumph of getting the last word.

"Then let us be off," Thor rumbled. "Lady Widow, do you require transportation?"

"Sure," Natasha accepted his offer, and Clint was carried by Tony as they made their way down to Brooklyn, Natasha placing a call to SHIELD in midair.

It was noon by the time everyone arrived, the tense air outside the warehouse magnified by the amount of SHIELD agents milling around it, the edge of the ward clear by the point where cars abruptly stopped, and the air rippled slightly.

Loki was given plenty of space by the still-wary agents, but seemed unbothered by it as he began setting out his materials. If anyone noticed the vial of dark red liquid, no one asked about it.

Loki sent a stony glance around as he finished setting up. "I will need absolute silence for this," he said. "Whoever has established this ward not only knows much of magic, but will undoubtedly notice when it comes down. When it does come down, you will need to be fast and get inside quickly, once we have located the specific building. Do you understand?"

There was a lot of nodding, and some scattered 'yes's. Loki turned back to face the ward, calling behind him "You might want to stand back a bit."

The crowd of mingled Avengers and SHIELD agents surged back at that, and Loki knelt by the bowl where he'd mixed together several questionable ingredients and started drawing with it, muttering something under his breath.

_"La oss gå gjennom fritt, uten skade fra bommen...La denne veggen kommer ned og gjør ingen skade kommer over oss...La maker være forsinket i visshet om at dette fortryllelse har blitt brutt...La oss passere gjennom uten frykt for skade eller død..."_

Even if someone had been standing right next to Loki then, they would have been unable to make out what he was saying, such was the power of his words. Those behind him began to see a change. The wall seemed to solidify slowly, showing them a dome which arched over what looked to be an entire neighborhood of Brooklyn. It grew thinner, the opacity creeping along and creating a thin shell, and abruptly shattered, the sound ringing out and the pieces of glasslike material vanishing before they hit anything.

SHIELD surged into the warehouse district, agents talking quietly into comm units and machines beeping as they worked quickly to narrow down Gabriel's location.

* * *

**Day 9**

**9:00, Brooklyn, warehouse district**

Aziraphale oversaw his guards with hooded eyes as they rushed around, preparing things exactly as he had asked - as if they would dare do anything otherwise. The amount of herbs he had been ingesting over the past week had helped to restore some of his demonic self, but in preparation for the ritual he had purged them all from his body. As a result, an unfamiliar nervousness and anxiety was making its way through him, and Aziraphale tapped on the railing in front of him absentmindedly.

"What do you think you're doing?" He barked at an unfortunate guard, who jumped and turned nervously to face him. "You're too far to the right! Move your position!" The guard hurriedly obliged, moving the chunk of stone slightly to the left of where he had placed it.

Aziraphale's eyes took in everything around the room, scouring for anything the slightest bit out of place. When finally everything was ready and he could find nothing wrong, he sent all of his guards from the room and forbade anyone to come in, instead setting six of them to guard the room Gabriel was trapped in.

Aziraphale descended from the small balcony silently, the only sound in the room the hiss of exposed pipes, the distant murmur of voices as the guards left to take their positions, and the quiet tap of his feet [in expensive leather shoes] on the stone floor.

He slowly took a piece of chalk from the box that had been left out, ignoring the stains it left on his hands, and began to draw a circle on the floor. It was a ridiculously convoluted mess, and had taken ages for him to perfect, and if Aziraphale had not known Gabriel before the first Fall he might have thought that the angel had given him a complicated ritual just to spite him.

The circle's outline was two parallel lines, one slightly smaller than the other, with a line of an ancient language not spoken by anyone for millenia written between them, the same phrase repeated thrice. Inside that was another double-parallel-lines design, this time a pentagram with a different phrase again repeated thrice, in the same language. Between the circle and the star were five circles, each containing a smoothed-out hunk of obsidian, which had been treated with various herbs earlier that morning. Aziraphale had done it himself, unwilling to breathe word of exactly what he was doing to anyone, or trust someone else to get it right.

Once the circle was finished, Aziraphale walked to the center, carefully shedding all but one layer of clothing. Optimally the ritual would have been performed...well...there was a reason most rituals were considered pagan, since most angels refused to associate themselves with things like that.

The ritual itself was almost as convoluted as the circle it required, but at this point Aziraphale was willing to pay nearly any price. He would not bear the indignity of Gabriel retaining his true self while he was trapped in a flimsy human meat suit.

As it was, Aziraphale was a third of the way through completing the ritual, and the ward he'd raised falling was little more than a twinge in the back of his mind.

* * *

Gabriel knew something big was going down.

The new guards, at least four of them, outside his room - or cell, more like - were enough to point that out in big, electric Vegas casino letters. The charge in the air from the ritual permeated the entire building, and Gabriel cringed as he realized what it was. The holy oil flickered as the energy hung invisibly in the air, reacting badly to the presence of something so demonic. Gabriel didn't know how Aziraphale knew that he'd known the ritual, and he wasn't too eager to find out. It wasn't something he was proud of.

In the meantime, Gabriel had to figure out what to do. Escaping now would be the best time, while Aziraphale was occupied, but it wasn't easy at all. The holy fire was one thing, the guards another. And since his Grace was restricted, the energy slowly leaking in was doing nothing to help Gabriel. It was really doing quite the opposite, slowing the healing of his wounds are aggravating them, the demonic energy burning against Gabriel's vessel.

It was nowhere near as bad as what Aziraphale had done to him, but it still hurt. Gabriel rattled the chains angrily, then jerked when they burned against his skin. He'd forgotten that Aziraphale had replaced them after he'd sent out his signal - the new ones were engraved with angel sigils, mostly meant to limit his power and keep him pacified - which meant completely helpless. The shackles did their job admirably.

Gabriel hoped that someone had noticed his call, as he wasn't sure how long he'd be able to stay like this.

The fall of the ward that had gone up yesterday was enough to get his attention. Gabriel's head raised slowly as the shattering sound echoed in his ears, and the guards outside talked nervously, the noise of their conversation swelling slightly. Gabriel wasn't surprised that the ward had broken - it was shabbily done, even he could tell that without even seeing it - and the only question that remained was whether it was an ally of Aziraphale's or a rescue mission.

It hurt to admit that he needed help, even now, but Gabriel sorely wished that it was the latter.

A fresh burn on his wounds made him gasp, and Gabriel groggily wondered if Aziraphale was doing this on purpose. Even if he didn't know how badly the hellish energy affected Gabriel, he would probably regard it as a convenient side effect.

As Gabriel slipped into unconsciousness, he cursed the demon for all he was worth.

* * *

SHIELD swarmed around the warehouse, having quickly narrowed it down. Tony had taken a quick glance in the air, and Bruce was doing his best to remain calm, for the sake of stealth. The six Avengers ducked into the warehouse, Natasha and Clint leading the way. Loki brought up the back, erasing any trace they left behind. Several SHIELD agents guarded the door, while different groups were quickly dispatched to find other entrances and prevent anyone from leaving.

"Iron Man," Natasha whispered into the comm, getting the group's attention. Apparently, when on a mission, code names were a must. "You, Captain, and Thor go with Hawkeye, take the left passage and see if Gabriel's that way. Hulk, Loki, and I will take the right and look around there."

"Got it." Tony answered, coming up behind Hawkeye.

"Wait," Loki whispered. "There is a foul presence. Whatever you do, do not enter the central room of the warehouse."

Loki gained several worried looks, but they all agreed and split up.

* * *

"How many doors does this place have?" Tony hissed disgustedly. They had come across several rooms on their way down the left hall. Most of them had been empty, with the doors hanging open, but some were closed and even locked. Steve had opened one of these rooms, blanched, and promptly relocked it.

"Let's not go in there," he had said, turning away and walking back down the hall. Thor had cast a glance at the door, but resumed walking along with the other three.

"I don't know." Clint answered Tony's question, glancing behind them and then back ahead. His bow was held by his side, one arrow already in position to be nocked.

"Sssh!" Steve held out a hand, preventing anyone from taking the next corner. In the abrupt silence among the four of them, the dim noise of conversation was heard behind one of the many doors.

"Shall we?" Clint murmured, and kicked open the door.

The men in the room leaped up, reaching for guns and other assorted weaponry, but a single arrow landed in the middle of the table and blew them all backwards with a sonic blast. The four Avengers leaped into the room, guns blazing.

The battle turned out to be a very short one.

"I'm not telling you anything," protested the one guy they had left conscious, darting nervous looks at his fallen comrades. Several bore clear marks from repulsor blasts.

"I think you will," said Steve neutrally. "You've got everything to gain by doing so."

"The boss'll kill me," the man protested, his cigarette having long fallen on the floor. "You wouldn't."

"I wouldn't." Steve hadn't killed anyone, merely knocked several of them over the head with his shield. He stepped back to give them man a clear view of Tony, severe and blank-faced in the suit, Clint with an arrow nocked and ready, and Thor with Mjolnir raised and glowering furiously. "You want to take that same chance with them?"

The man paled rapidly.

"You were very persuasive," Thor told Steve after they had gotten everything they could out of the man. "I did not know you possessed such a talent."

"I think it was mostly you guys," said Steve dryly, nodding to Mjolnir. "The giant hammer is pretty effective."

Clint waved a hand in between them. "I think we should be concentrating more on the weird as fuck stuff he told us about Hammer?"

Tony nodded. "Thor, you know of anything he could be trying?" His voice came through the suit slightly mechanized.

Thor shook his head. "I know not of what ritual he may be attempting. Loki would-"

_"Holy shit!" _A voice came through the comm suddenly, and a lot of background noise. The voice was unmistakably Bruce's.

"What?" All three of them went to their comms right away. "Widow, Hulk, what did you find?" it was Steve who posed the question.

Natasha's voice came through, a tinge of shock actually audible. "_We've located Gabriel, Captain. He's...not in good shape."_

* * *

The second group had made their way quietly along the right hall, and had dispatched several guards. Once Natasha paused at a door bearing a strange symbol, but Loki had grabbed her arm and tugged her away.

"Trust me," He had said in a low voice, Bruce straining to hear, "You do not know what may lie behind that sigil."

The trio had descended deeper into the warehouse, Loki ever vigilant in keeping them from attracting the attention of whatever was in the center. In a hallway which adjoined the path to the central room, there was a steel door which was guarded by no less than eight men.

"I'll stay back here," Bruce whispered. "No point involving the Hulk yet."

Natasha nodded, and she and Loki strode out to meet the guards.

One took a bullet to the head before any of them realized that they were being attacked. Any of their bullets were deflected by a shield Loki had erected with a wave of his hand, and as he extended his arms with a flourish twin bolts of electrical green magic took out two more of them. Natasha dispatched another by cracking his head to the ground, and one more fell prey to the Widow's Bite. The remaining three fought valiantly, but against an Asgardian god of magic and a nigh-immortal assassin, they didn't really stand a chance.

"Are you good?" Bruce peeked around the corner as the sound of gunshots and screaming abruptly stopped. "Ah." He raised his eyes from the bodies littering the floor and joined Natasha and Loki. "Is the door trapped?"

"Not as far as I can tell." Loki twisted his hand in front of the lock, and it disengaged with a series of metallic clicking sounds. He gripped the handle and hauled the door open.

"Holy shit!"

* * *

Gabriel was first aware that someone else had entered when the flames along the walls died with a gust of wind that was definitely not natural. The cool air on fevered skin brought him slightly out of the haze that the ritual's energy had inflicted, and he was aware of harried voices and someone standing very close to him.

There was a calm voice in the mess of the first one, and the first paused for a moment and whoever was standing near him was silent for a few moments before responding curtly.

Someone ran a hand over Gabriel, and even half-unconscious he flinched away. His second sign that something was very different was the chains unhooking themselves from where they were hooked, sending Gabriel crashing down. Someone caught him, pulling on the cut on his back and he yelled out.

"Hey, it's okay," Gabriel forcibly pulled himself back to consciousness as he was laid carefully on the stone floor. The man from the science lab - B something - was crouching in front of him, eyes wide and with the barest hint of green. He was holding a white box with a red design on it that Gabriel couldn't make out. "Gabriel, you're good now."

Even in this state, Gabriel found enough energy to roll his eyes. He nearly pulled a smile from Bruce - that was his name - who pulled something out of the box, and squeezed some of it onto his hand.

"You don't need to use that," Gabriel said hoarsely, wincing as he realized how not talking for so long affected his vessel. "They'll be fine."

Bruce looked doubtful, but switched his attentions to bandaging what cuts he could see. Someone - who turned out to be Loki when Gabriel craned his head to look - was holding his shackles, trying to find the lock.

"You probably shouldn't do that while there are still humans in the room." His words gave Loki pause, and Bruce plus Natasha [who Gabriel had just noticed in the doorway] glanced towards the shackles, no doubt noticing the engravings.

"But you need them off."

"No duh." Gabriel had recovered his sarcasm in a spectacularly short amount of time. "I'm just saying, they've been on for a while. You'll be able to withstand whatever happens. Them? Not so much."

Gabriel saw understanding dawn on Loki. "Widow, doctor. Please wait in the hallway."

"I have to finish-" Bruce objected at first.

Loki glared at him. "The longer we wait to remove these, the more extreme the reaction and the more considerable pain Gabriel will be in." Gabriel raised his eyes at the last one, as they didn't hurt as long as his skin wasn't being rubbed against any of the sigils, but Bruce paled.

The door closed behind the two Avengers, and Loki located the lock on the cuffs. He quickly unlocked them and slipped them off.

* * *

Steve, Tony, Clint, and Thor arrived in time to see Bruce and Natasha standing in front of a steel door as said door was nearly ripped off its hinges.

"The hell?" Everyone was shielding their eyes, the light escaping from under the door making that a necessity. Tony, who had spoken, slowly lowered his hand as the light died down. "What was that?"

"Gabriel had some sort of anti-magic cuffs on him," Bruce explained, staring at the dented door. "He warned us to leave before they were taken off...I guess for a good reason."

"Taken off?" Thor glanced towards the door with wide eyes. "Did Loki-"

"Yes, I remained inside." Loki appeared at the door, looking no worse for wear. "Most likely because I am the only one here able to aptly shield myself from the energy released. Doctor Banner, if you would like to continue."

Bruce disappeared back inside, most likely to help Gabriel, Tony thought.

Steve turned to Loki. "Why would...this...happen?" He gestured towards the door.

"Captain," Loki said dryly. "When the might of an archangel is being held back for at least several days, it builds up and becomes rather eager to _not _be held back."

"Ah. So-"

"Merely excess power." The group turned to the sound of raised voices in the room.

"I'll be fine-"

"You're injured, and if how we found you is any indication-"

"_There is no time!_" Gabriel came stumbling to the door, and as he leaned against it Tony swore heavily, while Steve did his best not to react, though he could feel the blood drain out of his face.

Clint was staring openly at the barely bandaged wounds. "I think you really should-"

"I'm fine," Gabriel snarled.

"How were you wounded?" Thor looked concerned, and the look on his face afterward indicated that he realized how tactless the question had been.

"Sonofabitch stole my angel blade," Gabriel grumbled, still using the door to keep himself upright. Tony couldn't help himself from gaping [luckily his faceplate covered it] when he realized that Gabriel's wounds were glowing slightly.

"Does the glow usually happen?" He couldn't stop himself asking the question, and Gabriel glanced down and then back up quickly.

"We don't have time for this," He said shortly, stiffening as he pushed himself into a standing position. "Our problem right now is Aziraphale."

"I'm sorry, who?"

Gabriel gave Clint a dirty look. "You know. Yay high," he gestured. "Brown hair, asshole?"

"You mean Justin Hammer," Natasha corrected.

"No, I mean Aziraphale," Gabriel said. "As in, the guy who is not attacking you for the sole reason that he's currently doing his best to regain his position as a _Knight of Hell."_

There was a pause as the group deduced one by one what that meant.

"Fuck," said Clint. "What do we do?"

"Go to the center of the warehouse and hope we're in time to stop him." Gabriel actually looked worried. "And if he's already finished, I'm the only one capable of doing any damage."

"With what? You're unarmed."

Gabriel frowned down at himself. "You wouldn't have happened to find a silver blade on your way down here, would you?"

"Like this?" They all gaped at Thor as he offered up a short silver sword to Gabriel, handle first.

Gabriel snatched it away and spun it in his hand with the air of someone handling a very familiar weapon. "Excellent." He smiled, something that could have been easily described as predatory, and every single person who saw it felt a shiver creep up their spine.

Gabriel vanished in a rustle of invisible wings, and Steve cursed. "There's no way he's going to be able to take on anyone like that," He said, something that apparently most of them agreed with. "Loki-" He turned towards the god. "Where's the center."

Loki pointed back the way they had come, towards where the door with the bloody sigil was located. "That way."

* * *

Gabriel was not in time.

Aziraphale was lost in a cloud of steam that the completion of the ritual had generated, and Gabriel couldn't sense him clearly. His Grace was still settling back into place, and though the deep cuts across his torso were closing they were nowhere near completely healed.

Someone screamed from within the fog - a furious cry of "No!"

Aziraphale had obviously discovered that the ward had fallen. Gabriel swept a cover of Trickster power over himself, just as Aziraphale scanned for him.

The howl that came when he discovered that Gabriel was no longer in his cell was primal. Gabriel thought demons had always been good at that.

Something changed. The fog began to die down, and the figure in the center turned towards precisely where Gabriel was standing. Gabriel let the cover drop - there was no point in hiding, unless he wanted Aziraphale to go on a killing spree.

"Gabriel." There was no theatricality or smile offered to the archangel. Aziraphale was coldly furious, eyes flickering to pitch black and back. "So you got past the guards."

"I'd say you had a little more than guards there to keep me put." Gabriel smirked. "Were you worried that I'd make it out? I'm touched by your high opinion."

Aziraphale growled. "This ends here, Gabriel. I will wipe you off the map."

"Oh, but I thought you needed me to get home?" This startled the demon so badly he faltered slightly.

"How-"

"I'm not stupid, Aziraphale, and you gave me a lot of time to myself." Gabriel met his gaze evenly. "Unfortunately for you, Heaven's closed off."

It was at this point that the Avengers burst in.

Both angel and demon were taken by surprise, which allowed them to get partially into the room before Aziraphale flicked a hand and flung most of them against the wall, pinning them there with his newfound power.

Thor an Loki stayed exactly where they were. Aziraphale cocked his head, studying them intently.

"Asgardian," he sneered. "Of course. I should have known."

"Release them," thundered Thor, swinging Mjolnir threateningly.

Aziraphale laughed, allowing the black of his pupils to spread. "Or what?" He jeered. "You'll throw the hammer at me?"

"I'd listen to him," said Gabriel from right behind the demon.

Aziraphale took himself to the other side of the room barely in time to avoid Gabriel's blade.

"I didn't take you for the cowardly kind, Gabriel," he snapped. Gabriel whirled around to face his fallen brother.

"Maybe if I wasn't facing a demon, I'd be a little kinder," he said, switching the angel blade to another hand. "As it is, Aziraphale, I've got no reason to play nice."

"Good," said Aziraphale mildly. "I had no intention to do so either." He was standing close to where Natasha was pinned on the wall, and he seized her by the neck.

Natasha's hands flew to her neck. Thor bellowed in anger, but another powerful blast from Aziraphale had the two Asgardians pinned to the walls as well, Loki having not been able to get a shield up in time.

"So these are Earth's Mightiest Heroes?" Aziraphale said mockingly. "I shudder to see what someone as low as Crowley could do."

"You underestimate them," said Gabriel.

"Do I?" Aziraphale smiled cruelly, and then winced as Natasha's Bite activated, sending electricity crackling down his arms. He dropped her quickly, and Natasha gasped as she recovered air.

"Mere trinkets," Aziraphale snarled.

"Oh I don't think so," Gabriel said. "I think you're still _weak_."

The demon lunged at Gabriel across the room, which was of course what he was expecting. Gabriel snapped his fingers, and Aziraphale howled, the pinpoint stab of Grace Gabriel had sent out dropping him to his knees.

The Avengers fell from the walls hard, Thor managing to land on his feet but the others not so lucky. Clint practically sprinted over to Natasha, where she had staggered up from the floor.

Aziraphale glared up at Gabriel. "You want to fight?" He snarled, getting to his feet. A blade formed in his hand, curved and black, dripping with malice. "Let's have a real fight, then."

They charged at each other and met in the middle.

From the outside, SHIELD recorded the phenomenon as an invisible force which blasted part of the roof off and forced many to take cover. From the inside, only Loki managed to stay on his feet, and even he slid back a few meters.

Gabriel and Aziraphale were locked in a deadly dance, blades slashing and two forces clashing. Shadows flickered wildly on the walls, some taking indescribable shapes which were different to everyone who looked on them and some taking the shape of six huge wings. Energy arced between the two combatants, glowing white and a thick, smoky black which burned Gabriel every time it touched him. Similarly, steam hissed off of Aziraphale if he was ever unfortunate enough to touch it.

"Can anyone get a clear shot?" Natasha shouted, the comms having long since broken. Wind was howling around the room, stirred up by the two opposing forces in the center.

"No way!" Clint shouted back. "They're moving too fast, and they're too close together!"

"So we just watch?"

"We can do nothing else!" Loki was looking with wide eyes upon the scene. "This battle is not something for use to meddle in!"

* * *

Gabriel was loosing.

It wasn't obvious. He had already been injured, so any new ones were not that obvious. Sure, he'd landed blows of Aziraphale, whose shirt was becoming similarly stained, but he was.

Aziraphale was fresh from the ritual, power filling his body and making him just that much faster. Gabriel had been chained up for a week, his Grace suppressed for days, and tortured on a regular basis.

Add to the fact that he couldn't draw power from Heaven anymore, he was sort of screwed.

The only thing that reassured him was that the Avengers had absolutely no clue of where the power balance lay. A counter for that was that Aziraphale knew exactly what was happening, and was determined to push Gabriel to his limits.

"Having fun, _brother?_" He whispered smugly. "Or have you finished?"

"I am going to beat your ass and leave it for the crows," Gabriel countered.

"So violent, for an angel." Aziraphale said, countering a strike Gabriel had directed at his head. "Is there something else in there?"

"Oh, I've been a lot more than an angel." Gabriel leaped over the black blade and came down on Aziraphale, who used his conjured sword to protect himself. "For instance, a Trickster."

A snap of Gabriel's fingers had a dozen other Gabriels spring into existence, surrounding the demon. Aziraphale made to swat through them and make them vanish, only to be surprised when the one he'd hit grabbed his hand and tried to flip him onto his back.

"Good luck finding the real me," said another copy, holding an angel blade and bringing it to his throat. Aziraphale growled, and surged to his feet, knocking the copies aside and lashing out with his hands.

The blast he created singed Gabriel slightly, and vanished the constructs. Aziraphale knocked Gabriel to his feet, and stood over him.

"Is this how it ends?" He jeered. "On your knees? I always knew you would end like this - in _submission._"

Gabriel growled as his skin repaired itself slowly.

"Are you ready to die?"

Gabriel could hear people surging to their feet as the artificial wind died down and stopped blowing dust everywhere, giving them a clear view into the fight. But that wasn't what he concentrated on, nor Aziraphale's words what made his eyes open wide.

It was the sudden _power _that he could access again, and the presence of something upstairs, and the chatter of voices in his head that he _recognized._

Aziraphale was swinging the blade down towards him, and Gabriel, with the sudden rush he'd gotten, stood up in a second and grabbed the demon's wrist. He heard something crack, for sure, and Aziraphale's eyes widened as he realized that Gabriel was at full power again.

Gabriel's angel blade had dug into Aziraphale as he stood up, and the long cut in his chest was bleeding profusely.

"No-" Aziraphale arced his back in pain, clenching his mouth shut. "I will not be defeated," He ground out.

Gabriel met his stare impassively. "I think you will."

_Snap._

* * *

Steve blinked as he found himself outside the warehouse in a split second. He had enough time to realize that the other Avengers were there with him when the warehouse practically exploded with blinding white light.

He was forced to his knees, shielding his eyes and there was glass flying everywhere as the windows shattered. A ringing sound echoed everywhere that felt like it was digging into his eardrums and ended as abruptly as it had begun.

Steve cautiously looked up. The person in front of him - Clint, he realized - was wiping his face and coming away with bloody hands. Steve touched his own face, finding no injury, and hurried over to Clint.

The sight should have been disturbing - it looked like he was crying blood, for god's sake - but Steve seemed numb, and agents in SHIELD suits were hurrying around and offering help. It seemed like everyone had been affected by whatever happened.

The doors of the warehouse crunched open.

Gabriel strolled out onto the empty side street that led to the warehouse. His injuries seemed to be marginally less severe, and his angel blade had been sheathed. He looked neutral, strolling out of the darkened building and into the crowd.

"What was that?" Loki was staring up at the building.

"That was a smiting," Gabriel answered. "And don't bother looking for anyone who might have been in there, 'cause if they were within fifty feet there's probably nothing to recover."

Several sharp looks were directed at him, but Gabriel seemed immune. He did up his shirt again, wiping hands across it and restoring the white color.

"So what happens next?" Tony said, the faceplate having lifted.

"Not hard to say." Gabriel grinned widely. "Think I'll go home."

And he vanished on the spot with barely a sound.

* * *

**The end.**

**Epilogue aside, this really is the end of the story. Heaven is open again, and I don't think Gabriel would waste another second in the Avengersverse if he knew he could go home. He'd probably try to sneak through Heaven to avoid the other archangels - not that he realizes that he's the last one now. Maybe the Winchesters will find him, maybe they won't. Maybe he'll team up with Cas to run Heaven. Who can say?**

**Well maybe I will, if I do end up writing an epilogue.**


	9. The End

**Epilogue time, guys.  
**

**I really debated over whether or not I was going to do this. "Endings are hard. Any monkey can poop out a beginning, but endings?"**

**This story has evolved from a little idea I had, one I got from another fanfiction, and then when the Avngers plot ended I made up my own and wrote the story out, ad libbing as I went. I have to say, I didn't imagine that I'd end up here. Almost two thousand views and lots of great reviewers, people who love the story ****_I_**** wrote. It's a lot for an aspiring writer.**

**So...this is the end.**

**And I guess I want to thank everyone who reviewed, or talked to me about the story, or encouraged me even the littlest but to keep going. To write more. I know that the dedication is usually at the beginning of the book, but I think I'll put it here - and it's to you guys.**

**Thank you.**

**This one is for you.**

* * *

_"This is the end, _  
_Beautiful friend,_  
_This is the end,_  
_My only friend, the end. _

_Of our elaborate plans, the end, _  
_Of everything that stands, the end, _  
_No safety or surprise, the end."_

* * *

_"In the beginning, God created the universe."_

* * *

Gabriel, somehow, thought he should have expected this.

Lucifer would have had to go. In the apocalypse, that much was clear. Michael going with him? Maybe not totally expected, but when Gabriel really thought about it and remembered what it had been like before the Fall, he knew that that had been the only way it was going to go down.

Raphael had been a surprise. Gabriel had left around the time his siblings started butting heads, and so his only memories of his older brother were of the healer, the more gentle person he had been.

Gabriel wasn't sure if he mourned any of them. At least, that's what he pretended to everyone else.

In the absence of any archangel for years, his siblings were grateful for a leader. Angels had never been meant for free will. Castiel was always the anomaly. He was one of the very youngest of Gabriel's brothers, and Gabriel was beginning to think he'd always been meant to play that role - the curious little brother.

Gabriel's arrival had been a surprise. The angels had been easy to convince, but the Winchesters had held him at gunpoint before Castiel showed up and persuaded them.

There was something odd about Dean's soul, a lingering shade of darkness a tiny bit greyer than Gabriel remembered the scar from his stint in Hell being, but he didn't question it. What he did question was the wrong Grace burning away at Castiel's vessel, and he had sat down with all three of them and listened in growing horror as the trio explained what had happened [in scarce detail, which Castiel always had to elaborate on] what had happened in the years that Gabriel had been gone.

Castiel teaming up with the demon Crowley, who had established himself as king of Hell. Defeating Raphael. Soulless Sam and Dean's deal with Death. Samuel. Eve. The Leviathan. Kevin. Bobby's death. Crazy Cas and Meg. Purgatory. Benny. Sam's year of normal life. The Angel tablet. Henry. The Trials. Gadreel. Metatron. The Fall. Abbadon. Kevin's death. Cain. The angels, warring on Earth. Stolen Grace. The mark. Dean's demon problem, and the shit Sam and Castiel went through to cure him.

Opening Heaven.

From what Castiel said, it had taken ages, a whole year wasted before the gates had been wrenched open. Metatron had to be forcibly persuaded before he parted with the secrets of how to do so. Gabriel didn't blame them - it sounded like they had been through some shit while he was gone.

After the Winchesters left, Gabriel pinned Castiel against the wall and asked him where his Grace was. Castiel shrugged helplessly.

"Wait," the seraph called as Gabriel turned to go. "Was it you? When Metatron took me?"

Gabriel looked back towards his brother incredulously. "Excuse me?"

Castiel nodded, as if that decided something. "Nothing. Never mind."

They didn't see each other for a while after that, but when Castiel finally returned to Heaven, the first thing he did was find Theo and apologetically return his Grace. The little bottle of shining power that Castiel had found in 'his' room in the Bunker a week after Gabriel returned was, of course, nothing to do with the archangel.

[If Castiel suspected anything, which he most likely did, he said nothing and accepted when Gabriel asked him to help him out with Heaven].

The Winchesters kept hunting. What else would they do? However they tried it, the brothers weren't cut out for normal life. They kept going, and if they got a little bored with wendigos or ghosts Gabriel made sure to leave something somewhere for them.

Castiel checked in with them regularly, despite his new duties upstairs. Gabriel wondered how long it was going to take for him and Dean to get their heads out of their asses. Sam certainly seemed to know what was going on.

Heaven was running fine now. Gabriel had put everything back into place, and made sure that if anyone actually wanted free will, it was there for the taking. Castiel's experience combined with Gabriel's millenia spent as a pagan and a Trickster made sure that it wasn't quite the same place it had started out as.

Sometimes Gabriel wondered about his Dad.

What would He think? He had spent so much time on it, after all, would He have been mad that everything went against the plan?

Gabriel eventually concluded that, if He really had disagreed with something, He'd have intervened by now and somebody would have been smote.

Sometimes he wondered about the Avengers.

They were just humans, really, and Gabriel had spent maybe four days in their dubious company. He wondered about wondering about them, and thought the fact that he even remembered them was ridiculous.

But...

They'd rescued him, despite everything, despite barely knowing him, and Gabriel owed them that much.

Dean and Sam were his first human...friends to die.

Gabriel was reluctant to call them friends, but you can't really die for someone without becoming friends. Castiel likened it to the troll scene in the first Harry Potter book, and Gabriel asked him when he'd found time to read them.

Dean came first. Sam followed quickly. They had been old, grown old with friends, taken over Bobby's work and become the center of the greates network of hunters in America. The Men of Letters had been restarted as well, and when the brothers died they left behind a hell of a legacy. When they came to Heaven, they found themselves in the Roadhouse with all their old friends. Booby was there, so were Ellen and Jo, Ash too, everyone who had hunted and died with them. Gabriel made sure that they were the actual souls of those people, and not just the copies Heaven had created.

Castiel was there was well, smiling as he greeted them. The brothers looked confused at first, but they began smiling as they realized that, after all this time, maybe Heaven wouldn't be so bad.

Dean took a while to convince, but an eternity with the people you knew best is good whichever way you spin it.

* * *

Heaven spanned across universes, and had all sorts of sub branches everywhere, depending on your religion. The part that poked into the Avengers' universe was how Gabriel had made his way home. Knowing the difference in time between universes, Gabriel knew he'd have to wait a while before any of the team he'd known came to Heaven.

Unsurprisingly, Tony Stark came first.

He'd died bravely, Gabriel would give him that, and seemed surprised when he saw himself in a room with Gabriel in front of him. "Gabriel? What are - where are we?"

"Where do you think?" Gabriel grinned as he gestured around.

Tony blinked as he realized he was in his lab, one of the robots rolling over to him. "It's..." His voice trailed off as he obviously realized what had happened. "Is this Heaven?" His voice cracked. "How do I get into Heaven?"

"Please. You thought you deserved to go downstairs?" Gabriel raised an eyebrow. "You underestimate yourself, Tony. I came personally to bring you here. You should feel honored." The angel ran an hand over one of the smooth steel tables. "You're just as famous in death, you know. I think your funeral was attended by anyone who could afford the ticket to New York. Your teammates were, of course, desolate."

"Why?" Tony rested a hand on the copy of one of his robots. "Why bring me here?"

"Because it's what you deserve." Gabriel smiled, a genuine one. "Even if you don't believe it."

* * *

Clint came next.

He'd died protecting Natasha from a fatal blast. The projectile that would have speared the assassin had killed him instead. No doubt the redhead was distraught. Clint, however, reacted much the same way Tony had - asking why he was here.

"Because you don't deserve Hell," Gabriel shielded his eyes as the wind blew past, ruffling the grass of the open field. A row of targets stood in the corner, bulls-eyes painted onto them. "Are all of you going to be like this?"

"Is Tony here?"

"Yes." Gabriel clicked his fingers together, a door springing up behind Clint. "If you really want to, I suppose you can go visit him."

Clint looked at the archangel, an expression on his face that warred between sadness and thankfulness. "What about Nat?"

"Your redheaded friend?" Gabriel shrugged. "She'll live. You succeeded in that respect. I'm sure she'll blame herself for everything."

"What about when she gets here?"

"You'll be able to see her, too."

"...Thanks."

"Not a problem."

"Why are you doing this?"

That gave Gabriel pause. Why was he doing this? He flashed Clint a smile and vanished, but the question nagged at him. He still didn't have an nswer when the next came.

* * *

Natasha turned out to be next. She spun around when Gabriel started clapping.

"You know, in all honesty, I didn't expect you to be next." He stated. "Good on you for not killing yourself, though. Nice work with the Doombots." She had been ganged up on by a group of evil robots, and the reinforcements [there had been many additions to the Avengers since Tony's death] had arrived too late. They had buried her with the Widow's Bite. "Clint was pretty upset when he realized what happened."

He saw the spark of hope in Natasha' eyes. Her Heaven was a barren white space, snow everywhere and sparse trees. There was something on the horizon in the distance, but Gabriel knew that no amount of walking would get her there. He snapped his fingers, bringing up two doors like the one he'd made for Clint. One was marked with an arrow, the other with a pattern in the shape of the arc reactor that Tony had abandoned in death.

"They're both here?" Sharp eyes watched Gabriel's movements.

"All of you are coming here. Really, I've never met a group of people that hated themselves more. Well, besides the Winchesters." Gabriel rolled his eyes. "Despite what you may have done in the Red Room, Natasha Romanova, don't think that I'm giving you a spot in Heaven just because I like you."

Natasha nodded once. "Thank you," she told him in Russian, and left through the door with the arrow.

Gabriel didn't stick around for the celebration.

* * *

Steve Rodgers was the only one who didn't seem shocked that he was in heaven, only slightly relieved.

"So Heaven is my apartment in New York?" he asked, looking around the simple, if spacious, room.

"Heaven's whatever you want it to be," Gabriel said, conjuring the now familiar doors, plus a third marked with an hourglass. "And what's Heaven without friends?"

Steve smiled honestly at him, and offered a hand for the archangel to shake. Gabriel took it - Steve was perhaps the most open man he'd ever met, and the grin he was putting off now was blinding.

"Thank you," he said honestly, unknowingly echoing Natasha's words.

"No problem," Gabriel replied. "Nice job with HYDRA, by the way." It was an unfortunate truth that Steve's death had always been tied with HYDRA - but just as he was gone for good this time, so was the organization. His funeral was nearly as big as Tony's, but unknown to the masses his real body was put to rest in a private ceremony with only the living Avengers, Fury, and Coulson in attendance.

Gabriel wondered why all the superheroes, the good ones, died young.

* * *

"Welcome to paradise, Doctor."

Bruce Banner blinked and looked around. Surprise was understandable, considering that the last thing he remembered was sheltering a bunch of his newer teammates from a bomb. He saw a simple room, a small apartment, one he'd never been in before.

"What's this?" He saw Gabriel standing next to the bed, smiling. "Did you rescue me?"

"Oh, no, quite the opposite." Gabriel leisurely walked over to join Bruce next to the desk, overflowing with papers. "It's a special honor given to those I fell deserve it - mostly the lower angels are in charge of bringing souls up here."

Bruce swallowed around the sudden lump in his throat. "I'm dead."

"Condolences," Gabriel said, not unkindly. "If it makes you feel any better, you die a hero. Hundreds attend the funeral."

Bruce nodded wordlessly, barely paying attention. Something occurred to him. "What about the others? Did everyone else-"

"Ah, I forgot." Four doors popped up this time, the newest marked with the familiar star and circle pattern. "I'm sure you'll be fine here, eh doctor?"

Bruce nodded and left through the door farthest to the right.

* * *

Gabriel whistled as he set the newest arrival down, watching the Heaven shape itself around him. "I have to admit, I was surprised when I didn't see you here before."

Coulson seemed to recognize him immediately. "And where's here?" The spy instincts didn't abandon him even now.

"It was impressive, though." Gabriel told him as if imparting a great secret, then continued in a normal voice. "Ten agents at once? A tricky situation, but not nearly as dramatic as your narrow escape with Loki. You deserved better."

Coulson slowly stood upright, abandoning the defensive posture. "I didn't get out of there alive, did I."

"You couldn't have, anyway. Don't worry about your cellist friend. She'll be fine." The agent didn't seem surprised that Gabriel knew.

"I'm sure there are plenty of people waiting to see you, now." Doors grew as Gabriel walked the length of Coulson's Heaven. The final one was marked with a nuclear sign, the three spokes tinted green if you looked closely.

Coulson regarded the doors carefully, testing the doorknobs. "Why do this?"

"Because I was curious about you, Phil Coulson. And because I felt like it." Gabriel grinned, a Trickster grin in full. "What better reason to do anything?"

* * *

Fury resisted the most out of all of them.

He managed to stubbornly anchor himself in his body long enough to impart some bit of wisdom to a couple agents, including an aged woman who leaned down close to hear it, and then he obviously caught sight of Gabriel, his eyes widening as he saw the hint of the six golden wings spread behind the archangel.

The reaper who had come to retrieve the man gave a savage yank and Fury's soul parted with his body, the spirit fading out of existence. The black-suited woman handed the soul to Gabriel, who quickly flew up and through a couple nameless places between Heaven and Earth before he let the man drop into his Heaven, landing with a whoosh as the plain white landscape resolved itself into the bridge of the Helicarrier.

"I was expecting someone like Death," said Fury, pulling himself upright. "Not you."

"Consider yourself lucky," said Gabriel. "If Death had come for you, you'd have spent ages talking before you actually got up here."

Fury gazed around, seeing the deserted bridge. "This is Heaven?"

"It's whatever you want." Gabriel shrugged. "If you want there to be agents, there'll be agents."

"And if I don't?"

"Then you can safely be alone for all eternity." Gabriel brought up the six doors, Coulson's marked with a pistol imprint. "The doors, in your case, will only open for you, but in case you fell like visiting everybody, well..." Gabriel smirked at the man, who was staring out at the sky. "The option's there."

* * *

Thor and Loki, of course, were none of Gabriel's business.

They had lived the longest of any of the Avengers. Thor ruled for another millenia [from Earth's point of view] on Asgard, Loki acting as the King's right hand and averting many a crisis.

Jane gave him several heirs, and was never anything less than Thor's equal in every way. The blond Asgardian once challenged a man to a duel for insulting her honor - he, of course, won it, and Jane slapped the man for good measure.

Both of them had gone to Valhalla when the time was right. The Warriors Three and Sif had passed on before them, and the two adoptive brothers went in boats side-by-side as all of Asgard gathered on the banks of the sea. Gabriel didn't see who came to get them, but he stood on the banks among the crowd, saluting as the ships caught fire.

He wished them luck in their afterlife.

* * *

Oh, the world ended eventually. Even the Winchesters couldn't prevent old age, however far they had gone to stop The End the first time around. But was that really all that was important?

The people that Gabriel had gone to carry to Heaven personally had all done amazing things. Amazing, and terrible, and some downright horrible stuff, even. But every one of them deserved their place.

And looking back, Gabriel didn't regret a single bit of it.

* * *

_"In the End, God had nothing to do with it."_

* * *

**The End.  
**

**For good, this time.**


End file.
